From Time Immemorial
by hisviks
Summary: The follow up to the Winning one shot from Sephrenia's Writing Challenge's In Memorium/ Momento Mori. Eric and Sookie can finally make a fresh start after a decade apart but a constant in each other's minds. However things will never be easy for a newly turned vampire and a telepath when the semblance of order that surrounds them threatens to fall apart. E/S–AU–MPOV
1. Chapter 1 - Beginnings

**A/N: Thanks for reading. A note to first time readers; without reading the two one shots In Memorium and Memento Mori little of this will makes sense to you. For those looking to refresh their memories there is a reference page on my blog, although I would suggest a quick rereading to catch up with all the details outlined in those two pieces. A direct link to the reference page is in my profile or navigate to the From Time Immemorial page on hisviks dot wordpress dot com. There are also character banners, family trees and all that jazz.**

**Please note that I don't own anything pertaining to the universe of SVM and True Blood created by Charlaine Harris and HBO. Any recognisable characters, story lines and/or dialogue belong to them. I like to think the rest is mine.**

Chapter 1 –Beginnings

**GPOV**

"Can't they afford some decent hard ground around here?" my favoured niece complained as she stumbled over the wet grass. Her shoes, undoubtedly a product of perfect craftsmanship, were sinking into the ground with each step soiling the satin material. Thankfully her many other redeeming qualities made us all put up with her petulant bouts of whining. "Why are we here again?"

"Eric's unfuneral," Sookie replied knowing Pamela's question really needed no answering. Her royal highness had blocked out her busy calendar especially for this night. "Though you vampires really need to think of a better word for it."

"You're the one who thought of it," Pamela retorted. "Don't put it on us…" her reply was cut short as she toppled over with an aggravated scream. I caught her before her immaculate wardrobe sustained any damage and I couldn't help but chuckle at her fluster.

"You could fly instead," I offered, only turning her face more sour as she brushed off the imagined dust. It was a sore spot for Pamela, our entire house were known to be expert flyers. Her skill resembled something akin to the flight of the bumblebee. It was nowhere near as beautiful as the interlude of Rimsky-Korsakov's composition. "Hover?" My eyebrows lifted along with feigned innocence.

She huffed in return before moving forward steadily on her feet. "Sookie likes it when I act human," Pamela offered as a weak excuse. Sookie's attempt to stifle her giggle was to no avail with our heightened senses but for the sake of my niece I silenced my own amusement as we continued on to the gravesite.

It was a strange sight before us candles and white roses, from what I understood Sookie had been placing those flowers on Eric's grave every week since installing the empty grave. It jarred with the sight of the small excavator flooding the grave site with its harsh artificial lights.

I was never given a grave. With my death no one had missed me, it should be a sad memory but it's not. Until recently vampires didn't have the luxury of returning to loved ones. I never had any of those to return to; it was my fortune, not having anything to leave behind. There was nothing to miss.

Eric had travelled ahead of us, though he hadn't explained to me fully why. When we were walking towards the assigned spot in the cemetery I overheard his motivation. Eric wanted to be assured the headstone would be kept intact. Apparently he wanted to keep it as a memento.

It alleviated my worries. I know my young child lacks my niece's flair for the dramatics but the two of them together were turning into mutually bad influences. Had this been Pamela's unfuneral I would not have put it past her to jump out of the ground like one of those women inside a giant cake. Flawless without a speck of soil on her of course. It would be a look only Pamela could pull off successfully.

"Hi," Sookie said softly as she caught Eric's eyes. The two of them were a real marvel to observe, they were either orbiting around each other or colliding into each other with great force. It reminded me of the time I first saw them together, it was a decade ago to this day. Neither one was aware of the anniversary of course, as I had been hiding in the shadows then. I was but a ghost of their shared past in that moment of time.

Despite Pamela's admonishing I had ventured out into the sun that afternoon, regardless of my required appearance at her court that night. The sun didn't burn us to our final death like the Impurus but we did sport the appearance of a nasty sun burn. No SPF had proved strong enough so far, much to my regret.

My niece found it unbecoming, whilst I knew my reddened skin would heal in time. Pamela had been predictably sceptic as she wore the signature quirked brow of our bloodline in accusation on her otherwise flawless face. I had merely returned the same upturned gesture when I had returned without a hint of pink on my skin.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular that day but when I walked past the large glass window of the diner something inside called to my attention. They were exactly the same as then. Both afraid to make a wrong move, trying to look everywhere but at each other. I sat huddled in a dark corner of the diner where I could observe them unhindered.

I tuned out all sound, I simply wanted to watch a story as it was captured by sight. Observing everyday humans and their relations had always been a favourite pastime of mine through my many centuries. Unfortunately reality was always far more mundane than my imaginations, so I silenced that and wrote my own dialogue in accordance to their performance.

I had asked Eric once what their conversations had truly consisted of. He was able to tell me from his restored memory each and every single line of dialogue that they had exchanged. There weren't many and as I had anticipated they were incredibly uninteresting. A mild flirtation at most.

The things of interest had happened in their minds and unfortunately I wasn't gifted with telepathy like young Sookie but she had shared some recollections when I met her properly for the first time. Just as Sookie had never left Eric's thoughts, he had remained firmly inside hers.

I had found Eric as accidentally the second time as I had the first. He had interested me more than Sookie at the time. It is a strange revelation now, knowing that she carries this extraordinary gift. Yet Eric was a gift to me without possessing such skill, there had been a pull to him I could not explain. He simply belonged by my side.

I had briefly looked into him and found he lived the life of appearances but was far from comfortable living them. He doesn't remember much from his turning but I remember all. I found him whilst taking a nightly stroll through the otherwise uninhabited woods beyond Pamela's estate.

Two weres were beating him within an inch of his life but he fought valiantly even though it cost him his life. He refused to give up and at my growl the weres instantly retreated. I too then refused to give up on him and I did what I had vowed never to do. I would make him my child for he belonged among the living. I gave him a choice, something I had never been given but I thought he deserved. He answered yes and with that acceptance I opened up my veins to another for the first time.

I decided in that moment I would go to war with my own family were he not to rise as a Sanguine. He belonged by my side, full blooded or otherwise.

His amnesia became apparent shortly after rising. We were all somewhat at a loss in our new state initially, with Eric it lasted longer than it should. It made him somewhat helpless but I saw it as a great opportunity. As I had no one to mourn me, he had nothing to mourn. I worried for his safety so I kept him hidden, our House of Aurelie accepted him with reservations. He had a decade to prove he was a capable Sanguine.

To my great pride he proved that what was asked of him within a year but I relegated him into the shadows as rumours of an impending reveal grew with possible truth. He would be the first of a generation that could hold their true identity in the world of humanity as well as ours. I owed Eric the opportunity I never had and whilst no one missed me, there were those that missed Eric.

I looked forward to this change in times, yet the cause of it was less settling. Our relations with the Impurus ebbed and flowed in varying degrees of turbulence. The standoff had been tense for many decades now and intelligence reports had reflected organisation of breeding programs.

They were gathering an army, so the Houses of Sanguine knew they could not stand idle. We could never compete with their ease of procreation, the probability factor never lay favourably on our side. However, we held the light where they were relegated to eternal darkness. Exposing them along with ourselves secured the hierarchy and the power base.

My sympathy had always gone out to the Impurus. My intended unlife had been as a mere prop for my maker under the instruction of my grandsire. I was a disposable human and expected to be a single use exercise. I was simply the material for a lesson in turning. To be staked upon rising, for the Sanguine never sourced their children amongst what they considered unworthy humans like myself. I didn't even have a first name that I remembered, let alone a last one.

Godric was the name my grandsire christened me with. Despite the Roman origins of my grandsire he chose the Anglo Saxon name that meant rules with power of god. I was simply 'boy' or 'slave' before that. When I proved a more impressive specimen than my maker, the honour was bestowed upon me to carry our House's name, Aurelie, as my last.

My birth had been a serendipitous one just like Eric's and my full name carried that reverence. If Eric continued to prove himself with the strength he had displayed so far, it would not surprise me that he too would carry the Aurelie name alongside his own at some point in his existence.

As indicated by the headstone that was carefully being secured into the hold of fabric belts, his name would remain Eric Northman for now. Sookie had chosen to adorn the slab of stone with carved lilies of the valley. She would have chosen it for the meaning of return to happiness and its Christian significance in her bible. She was most certainly unaware that the flower was the reigning symbol of our house of Aurelie.

It is said a lily of the valley stood in affection for a nightingale that sang above it night after night. The lily of the valley fell in love but was too shy to show herself. When the nightingale no longer came, she waited for him in vain and out of sadness she never bloomed again till the nightingale returned to her in May.

To our house it stands symbol for our successful retrieval of our full blooded children and their continued devotion to us. I had always disliked it for this reason, the discrimination of those considered imperfect. There was beauty to be found there.

Tonight that legend held meaning for me for the first time. It was not unlike the path Eric and Sookie had walked apart these years, only for the creature of the night to return to the other finally ready to bloom. She had not fallen in love with his nightly song but she had told me his mind had spoken kinder words of her than any other.

Nor was she as painfully shy as when I had observed her that first time. Despite struggling to retain control of Eric's estate she had grown to be a woman in a right of her own, the only resurgence of that early hesitance surfaced whenever in Eric's presence.

"Thank you all for coming tonight," the little blossom spoke after clearing her throat. She made a small wave to the camera that was set up so Eric's sister and Louvelle could join us for the ceremony. Sookie fumbled at the sharp corners of her index cards before continuing. "The last time I stood here with a congregation it was just me, my brother and Lovisa. None one of us really knew what to say then, his sister and I were unwilling to resign to the finality of it all. Eric deserved to be remembered and that's why we stood here. It was a cold and windy day and Lovisa said Eric would have liked the chill, never having adjusted to the warm climates of Louisiana. Though I hardly knew him then, I knew _of_ him.

"Through Lovisa, his things, his actions. Eric Northman was an admirable man to me then but his true character showed in the little things that no one else seemed to see. He never stopped visiting his grandmother long after she forgot who he was. I read many letters of his former employees that said he would always help them out when the need was there, whether they had asked for his help or not."

Sookie pulled nervously at the next card though she seemed to be reading from memory. "Eric was no saint," she continued to which everyone attested with a round of laughs. It occurred to me then it was the first time I saw a true smile grace my son's face since that day ten years ago.

"The boy toys and Corvette stand witness to that. He made my brother envious with the remnants of his life. But I'll always remember the first time we met. He was by far the richest and…" A small cough escaped her as she lowered her volume, "handsomest man in the room but he never treats anyone as less than himself. It's rare as a waitress to be treated with that level of respect but it was even rarer for me as a person. I never wanted any of the things he left to me but I am thankful that he did. It's how I got to know him when he couldn't be around to meet." Her hands shuffled once more to the last of the cards.

"This is the place where Eric entered back into my life and though I wished he'd have come out of hiding sooner, so he could have dealt with his crazy ex-wife." A small tear escaped from the corner of her eye with the intended humorous statement but it only sought to highlight the moments of struggles her life had been without Eric's presence.

"But I'm glad that he did. For that this spot should not stand as a monument to his death, it should stand testament to new beginnings," she paused briefly before warmly looking up at my son. "Welcome back Eric." Her last sentence was repeated by some of the other attendees as Sookie gave a curt nod to the operator of the excavator who proceeded to pull the stone from the ground.

Eric took possession of the stone as soon as it was released whilst Sookie planted two rose bushes in the disturbed ground. Pamela held an upturned nose at the sight of Sookie's dirtied hands and at that I couldn't help but throw a clump of dirt on her virgin white dress suit. We both knew the dirt was too dry to set a stain but the minute changes in her facial expressions informed me she was incensed nonetheless.

"Unfuneral," I whispered innocently in defence, indicating how important this was to Sookie and she best not fly out in rage.

"You're lucky I like her more than you," she returned brushing off the offending soil. In apology I hovered Pamela and myself over the path back to Sookie's ancestral home. It still stood empty but for tonight the living room held a large round table that was tastefully decorated with the same candles and roses by the gravesite. Here it didn't feel like a place of passage anymore but rather it spoke of celebration.

We all sat down in our assigned seats after which Eric held a speech of thanks to all those present to celebrate his defiance of death. Glasses were raised and people merrily drank and ate into the early hours of the night. My eyes danced across the table as I once again took in what travelled between my son and his intended. They spoke without words just like then, but I did have insight into Eric's range of emotions now. I had felt his paralysing fear earlier when Sookie answered Pamela she probably would be saving Eric's plot for herself now.

I knew I had neglected to prepare him for the inevitability of death for the non-immortal we associated ourselves with. His draw to Sookie had prevented me from doing so, I did not want to ruin something that felt so pure in spirit. I had described it as tingles back then as I had no reference for it myself.

She had held an affection for him beyond the grave. She would not have been so upset otherwise with what she had termed Eric and Pam's highhandedness in reacquiring her home through manipulation. Thankfully Sookie had come to reason when she discovered it was through my conscientious actions that her former home was hers again. I didn't truly understand her upset till I sat on Sookie's couch not many nights ago.

A human man once told me true love is the only thing that survives death. I had laughed at the irony at the time, as I was a survivor of death and it had nothing to do with love. That night I had understood it in its entirety. She had built up a high moral character for Eric and my gesture had momentarily shattered that. That had been the cause of the upset, not the set of keys that rested firmly in her grasp.

I was only granted any semblance of love when I proved formidable in my skills and aptitude. Pamela held me dear despite of it. She liked me for who I was not what I could mean to her. I was reminded of it during Sookie's speech, Eric had been like that as a human. Never one to see anyone as less than, despite his fortuitous upbringing. He deserved my love for him and I have given it to him freely, though I have never been good at expressing it.

"How does Eric know a prepubescent wolf?" the man next to me asked. His name was Alcide Herveaux and he was the head of Sookie's security team. They had been invited by her to join the dinner feast. I had never socialised with weres before.

Many had worked for me but as a rule weres circumvented Sanguines in fear of what we could do to their entire bloodlines if they aggravated us. The houses of Sanguine considered themselves to be the echelon of the supernatural order. Only to be rivalled by the Fae but they have been extinct since long before I was born.

"She is the groundskeeper's daughter at my estate," I offered in explanation. I had allowed Eric his friendship with the little were since it seemed to be helping him along with his memory better than my attempts. I was never one for adhering to the required etiquette anyhow and saw no harm in it. "They have a unique friendship."

"Unique, yeah," the werewolf replied in between bites of food before he returned a conversation to his other side. Apparently that was all he wanted to know from me. I was undisturbed by it as it allowed me to observe for the first time that night Sookie and Eric standing ready to collide. Whether it be an eruption or union I was assured it would be entertaining.

He had stolen her away from the table and she had followed him to a darker corner of the room. I didn't tune out their speech this time, for tonight I intended to listen rather than paint the imagery with my mind.

"Thank you for this Sookie," my son said to her sporting that foreign smile. She beamed back, the alcohol that had flowed that night loosening her inhibitions somewhat. She rested her dainty hand on his forearm to steady herself ready to reply.

Instead of the anticipated response she nervously turned her head towards Pamela who was engaging with another Sanguine. Our natural alertness had responded to her upsurge of fear instantly.

"Are you expecting any other vampire guests?" she asked fretfully of Pamela. The uninvited callers answered before my niece could as Molotov cocktails crashed in through the windows from all sides setting the room to flames.

I had expected a crash, a detonation of sorts when the telepath and my son had finally stopped dancing circles around each other and stood to truly meet as equals. Standing witness to the heat, fire and sparks flying between them in conjunction with all the other phrases my son's novels had described about highly anticipated moments such as these. Instead I was forced to stand witness to the inferno that had not been ignited by the heat smouldering between their eyes but from the malicious intervention of fate.

I knew little of what stood to occur from now, but I knew for certain that these were not the images I had conjured up in my mind marking _their_ new beginnings.

**A/N: Updates on this will be twice weekly to start on Tuesdays and Saturdays (days and interval may change at a later date and I'm taking a vacation in August so we'll see how it goes). I will warn that the plot lines for this story progress slowly and the focus will reside on the budding relationships between the different characters. There will be twists and turns but also an exploration of the different facets that build up this universe. I hope you will (continue) to enjoy the chapters ahead. **

**Next chapter will be EPOV picking up right where we left off and a bit of reflection on what happened after the events at the end of Memento Mori.**

**Special thanks to VAlady and treewitch703 for taking the time to pre-read and their invaluable feedback. **


	2. Chapter 2 - Home

Chapter 2 - Home

**EPOV**

She was in my arms exactly where I wanted her to be, but not like this. Not in these circumstances. It was seconds after impact and we were already all secured in Pam's entourage of armoured vehicles. The identical cars were speeding off in opposite directions while Sookie sobbed all over my formerly pristine white cotton shirt. I felt like sobbing myself as she pried herself from my grasp and sought Pam for comfort. It wasn't personal, whatever it was between us we lacked the familiarity that she needed for solace. It stung regardless.

Most of all she was upset for her home. We already had it confirmed, everyone had been safely escorted out, which had been her primary concern. The tears came afterwards, the fire was yet to be contained. Pam's security staff had been slack in their protection. At Sookie's insistence they had allowed themselves to be comfortable in the festive atmosphere. We were at an informal social event, there had been no necessity for Pam's usual overwhelmingly large entourage. Sookie's team of weres had proved more effective, having already caught two of the perpetrators. They had stopped listening to Sookie's disregard of her own safety long ago. Pam's security detail had finally caught the third, from Sookie's mind we knew exactly how many we were looking for.

"I only just got it back," she whimpered between sobs. Her fears for the possible loss of her family home for the second time was gut wrenching. Sookie had shown it to me with such pride just two nights ago when I had sought her out at my grave as she bid goodbye to the other me below the ground.

_We had walked down that same dewy path of green grass to her car just as we did those many weeks ago. It seemed a lifetime had passed us by in between now and the moment that I had returned as vampire. A comfortable silence had fallen between us as she led me back to her newly reacquired home._

"_I see you have upgraded your car," I said with a smirk I couldn't contain. It seemed to be growing on her, Sookie expressed she was already beginning to hate and love the sight of that particular facial expression in equal measures. She informed me Jason's former truck used to be named the pussy wagon but in the state it was now she'd be lucky to attract a reluctant stray cat. I laughed with her knowing it was how she diverted attention away from conversations that should be had._

"_Why didn't you take the Corvette?" she asked of me instead._

"_It didn't feel like me anymore," I answered honestly. I had enjoyed reuniting with the horsepower at my feet but I didn't like revisiting the man I was back then. Nor did I want to hold Sookie in the same regard as the women who had sat in her seat. "Why aren't you driving it?"_

_She gave a small shrug before opening the rickety old door and inviting me in. "Didn't feel like mine anymore," she replied before hesitating. _

_I knew where her mind was headed, she still wanted to return everything to me. I didn't have need for it but she had thus far refused to accept what was once mine should continue to be hers. _

_Cataliades had warned me she would be resistant and stubborn but time would make her agreeable. She had fought every legal battle to the bitter end, refusing to settle till she felt justice was served. She never understood that Freyda wasn't fighting her for the money, she was fighting for recognition as my true wife. Freyda only relented when she found another man that would do just that. _

"_I still remember all the things my Gran taught me to cook in here," she said as she led me into the kitchen. I knew she missed Adele Stackhouse. Like Lovisa and I, we both had held onto our last remaining grandmother longer than our parents. _

"_Maybe you can teach me some," I offered. I had a basic grasp of cooking but beyond my student years I had barely spent time in the kitchen cooking anything beyond breakfast. _

"_That sounds nice," she returned noncommittally. Every time I sidled in behind her she would step forward and out of my reach. "Do you still enjoy eating solid foods?" _

"_Blood is best," I confessed. Hers was proving to be beyond enticing whenever she blushed, I was convinced it came up to greet me at the sight. "I miss human foods when I don't eat them. It's more the sharing of the meal than anything else."_

"_Yeah me too," she responded no doubt missing the presence of her grandmother at her nightly dinner table. "Listen..." we both said at the same time and after some back and forth she conceded to go first._

"_I think we need to discuss your estate," she started in a cool business like tone. I recognised it as one I had used quite often in my working days. I tried to stop her from expanding the conversation any further but she persisted. "We need to start fresh, as the people we are today. I don't want this weighing down upon us."_

_She had her point and I hated to admit it. I had taken Cataliades' council and decided to simply ignore broaching the subject it till she accepted that it was ours together. Now I understood Sookie Stackhouse wasn't going to dance around the elephant in the room with me. Blissful ignorance was a state a telepath never had the luxury to indulge in._

"_If I take it back, we can move on?" I asked wanting the business over and done with. I had already made it clear I'd be pursuing her. I found recognition and acceptance of that in her bouquet of apologies and tearful farewell of the other Eric that had rested in the ground with my absence. If it all had to move back and forth on paper twenty times I didn't care as long as it was ours or hers in the end. _

"_You're just humouring me," she said, the annoyance clearly present on her face. _

_The evening's events had left her emotionally raw and for once that formidable poker face of hers was finally legible to me. It was an accurate truth, money was the least bit of importance to me when alive. It was always a burden and never a prize. It all meant even less to me now._

"_Give it all away if you're so desperate to get rid of it," I responded a little more callous than I intended. "I don't care either way."_

"_You should care!" she expressed in exasperation. She launched herself into the air on the backs of her hands to settle on the high counter behind her. Our eyes rested upon each other almost at an even level and it only made me inch closer to her. Sookie's menacing tone was not unlike Louvelle's when she was impassioned like this. "It's the legacy of _**your**_ family."_

_It shouldn't have taken me by surprise but it had. We were discussing our families throughout the tour of the house. She had indicated every little spot in her home where a momentous occasion for their family had occurred. The house was a testament to the generations that had occupied the modest home. It was how Sookie kept them close, it's why the return of the house meant so much to her. _

_In her view I was simply throwing away the ties that bound me to my human family. I wasn't sentimental like her. I loved my sister dearly. I held the memory of my grandparents with great affection. My relationship to my parents had been turbulent but close to their individual deaths we had made our peace. _

_I had considered Sookie part of my family from the moment she accepted my presence back in her life. Lovisa, or Isa as I had always called her when I was unable to enunciate it coherently as a child, had already been referring to her as '_**lilla syster'**_, little sister, before my return. I had laid claim to her without her knowledge and with that thought I cupped her cheeks in the palms of my hands. For once she didn't retreat, she faced me head on._

"_I care," I whispered as our lips were so close I could feel the heat from hers as my own. "I care for you. You are the reason I chose for an existence beyond mere mortality." My lips moved to the tip of her nose as my thumbs smoothed the skin of her cheeks. "Every time I see you I am reminded all over again. This life that animates mine."_

_Her eyes never wavered as her hands moved to hold on to my wrists. Every step I took towards her another shield was drawn. She never pushed me away despite her cautious stance and when I felt her capitulate, the distance between us was lost. I had not given a kiss this chaste since I answered the first one I received. My fear that she would not respond and once again fortify her defences was false. It was she that deepened the kiss, pulling our hands and wrists down freeing us of our collective confines. _

_Her lips were softer than I had conjured up in my imaginations, they were full and giving not unlike the woman herself. Momentarily mine. She gave way for my hands to rest atop the curve of her hips. I knew I was a man lost then. Nothing would ever feel this good in its innocence and simplicity. What I felt for her ricocheted between pain and pleasure and if this was all she would ever give, it would be enough. I would mourn the loss of it for every single day of my existence in the same way she had grieved for me._

"_I don't need you to be mine," I breathed out against her lips. "I simply want to be worthy of you. Tell me what to do. Anything you ask, my answer will be yes."_

_Her warm hand rested on my cheek as she sought out the oxygen I had deprived from her lungs. The way her eyes pierced sharply into mine made me fear the worst and for once I was right._

"_That's the problem isn't it?" she said to me, though it seemed mostly directed at herself. "I have to go. Stay as long as you like."_

_I let her leave and I stayed as she ran. I toyed with the spare key in my hand as I walked from room to room. I wanted to understand Sookie from the tangible memories that still resided in this house. _

_I spent the longest time in the soft yellow papered room that was her childhood bedroom. The pictures that had been removed from the wall showed how much the sun had ebbed away at the brightness of the original colour. It reminded me of Sookie. The brilliance that was there when I had first laid my eyes upon her had faded in my years of absence. It was not to be explained as a loss of youth, it was the embodiment of her battle scars. _

_She had fought in my name, she was my champion when I was unable. The sum of my inheritance was a pittance to what she deserved in reward. She did not need a 'yes' man, her newfound wealth had undoubtedly surrounded her with plenty of those. Sookie was never meant to be a kept woman. She needed a warrior by her side not a man who indulged her every whim. We needed to fight in order to understand the other, before we could ever hope to make up. _

_I couldn't help but smile, she went to the end of the earth and back for me. Why should I not be expected to do the same? She needed someone to fight on her behalf for once. Luck would have it I was quite adept with a sharpened blade. I had locked down her house and returned to Pam's estate minutes before the first rays of the sun crested over the horizon._

_I lay in bed, rest evading me as I strategized my next move. As ever, Sookie surprised me by reaching out to me before I could. Not with the symbolic gesture of flowers or gifts. It was simply the beauty of her voice as it travelled down the telephone line slightly higher in pitch than her natural tone._

_Her waking hours of the day had been more conducive than mine as she proposed the concept of the unfuneral to me. In all honesty I liked my headstone, it was her undying belief in my continued existence. I knew, however, that physical things were important to her. The upbringing she enjoyed had been filled with metaphors and myth and I knew this would be healing to her. She wanted to celebrate my life, the one I lost but also the continuation of it in my altered state._

_With nothing between us but an electronic line we spoke with greater ease. She was excited that I had agreed and she informed me of her plans. I replied by telling her what I truly wanted, to be surrounded by the people that mattered most to me. I wanted a large round table so everyone could look at one another. I had no desire to sit at the end of a lengthy table as if it were a throne where I had to enthral my guests. For Sookie I wanted her home to smell of the cooking scents of her grandmother. A homecoming of sorts, the recognition that the banner of the Stackhouses had taken residency once more._

On the drive back to Pam's residence I counted my blessings that she had left me behind in her own home to take in every important nook and cranny in great detail. I knew nothing could replace the bumps and dents impressed by time but I was determined to do so regardless.

The evening had been everything I had hoped for, till the unfortunate interruption of the flames. When she had spoken of me in the past, it proved to me she understood that at my core I stood unchanged. The way in which my character had always been publicly portrayed failed to convince Sookie to hold any truth of who I really was. The brief insights into my mind had told her more of me than I had ever shared aloud with anyone else.

For the first time she had expressed her gratitude for what I had bestowed on her. Sookie's telepathy had given her insight into my inner musings but her immersion into my life had allowed her to know me beyond that. Had our situations been reversed I had no doubt her home would have read to me like a storybook of who she was.

Pam soothed her as best she could but she was too long gone from human touch to remember how. Sookie had finally quieted some despite that, as we approached the heavily secured gates of Pam's estate.

I would have preferred to have flown here with Sookie in my arms knowing it was the safest place we could be. Duty lay with the Queen, Godric had already disclosed to me that her royal highness would always have to rely on human modes of transportation.

Her rule had never been under threat, she was fair and progressive. Aptly suited to the new world. That is what my maker had told me but I had to admit I was grossly uninformed on the intricacies of the political playing field at large.

Our high speed was only halted momentarily as we awaited the opening of the monumental double sets of cast iron gates. The forced stop turned into our blessing as the left wing of the impressive mansion exploded filling the night air with noxious gas and surmounting flames. Pam's driver was thoroughly trained and before a piece of rubble could descend onto our vehicle we were backed out on the public road, testing the limitations of the vehicle's velocity to the nearest safe house.

It was then that I stood witness to the fact that Sookie was no ordinary human. The beast that fuelled the warrior inside her emerged. Tears forgotten she looked me straight in the eyes mirroring the fire I had just witnessed in the towering flames.

"We're going to our house," she commanded before pulling her gaze from me to Pam. Apparently these circumstances had halted our 'yours and mine' conversations. "The security is as good as yours. You have the added protection of a human owner who can't be glamoured."

While Pam's safe houses were surely in the name of mortals the secondary attack had confirmed to us this was no longer a random act. They were all just houses now, the safety no longer intact. I had been informed that the tension between the humans of Bon Temps and the recently migrated Impurus had caused relations to strain. Knowing it had been our presence that had possibly torched Sookie's beloved home to ashes was an induction of guilt I never wanted to feel again.

"Do it," Pam instructed the driver without pause.

The area around my former home was deserted in the late hour of the night. At Sookie's request the driver slowed down as she scanned the area for anything hostile, human minds or voids, but she found all was as calm as the empty street. She gave a hesitant look to Pam as we neared the gates of the property. The wards were defined up until the property lines unlike the standard wards granted to a human home. Understanding her hesitance Pam gave an approving nod at which she invited the Sanguine driving the car, Shahbaz, into her home.

Despite Sookie's mental reconnaissance we stayed in the car till the door of the garage was fully down. Our driver scanned the perimeter physically before he gave Pam the all clear to move into the rest of the house. Pam's annoyance with the security protocol was clearly legible on her face.

In the time that I had come to know Pam it was evident she struggled with the restrains that her position placed upon her. Being a queen gave her as much direction over it as one could be afforded but it imposed new ones alongside it.

Sookie and her home were like a Petit Trianon* to her. A refuge from the demands of court life. Though thankfully she left the milkmaid costumes at home. Pam seemed to move around the home with more ease than even Sookie. I dutifully followed into the basement that in my absence had been transformed into a full-fledged vampire approved bunker.

Sookie had set herself to work fitting sheets to the beds. At the apparent lack of help from my fellow vampires I moved in to assist. She smiled at me in gratitude as together we tucked and tightened the corners of every single bed. Fresh towels were placed on top of the newly covered duvets while I strangled the pillows into their fabric hold. At the sight of them she fluffed and straightened them. A small gust of air escaped her nostrils with a poorly contained smile as I caught her guilty face while I had regarded her scrutiny of my ill work.

"Thanks," she said, her eyes no longer haunted with caution. "You're different from them."

"How so?" I couldn't help but ask. There was no denying I was young and had been raised Sanguine in sheltered confines. By appearances I followed suit as expected but her assessment was accurate. I belonged with them by blood but I had yet to shed the skin of my past. I doubted I ever would.

"You're not scared to get stuck in," she said appreciatively before lowering her voice to one that spoke of conspiracy. "Pam thinks manual labour is a disease."

I couldn't help but laugh despite our dire circumstances and she joined in. As I stood disarmed by all that was happening around us she moved. Into me and her arms around me. As our revelry quieted down we held each other for comfort in _our_ house. I couldn't care for what tomorrow would bring, this was home to me.

**A/N: My blog has character banners so if you're curious to see what the driver Shahbaz go visit hisviks dot wordpress dot com or find a direct link to the reference page in my profile. Whenever a little asterisk (*) is in the text you will find an explanation of a term or knowledge that perhaps might not be commonplace. **

***Petit Trianon is a small chateau on the grounds of Versailles where Marie-Antoinette resided in her spare time escaping from the formality that her station demanded of her. She was known to re-enact the simplicity of rural life in exaggerated fashion, most famously herding heavily perfumed sheep and goats in milkmaid outfits. It was something she did in the spirit of the Enlightenment, it is a common misconception that the Royal French Court disregarded or discouraged the movement. The young Royal Couple and their court were avid followers of the literature and pursuits that ironically rang in their demise. Antonia Fraser's biography is an especially good one on the subject as well as Sofia Coppola's cinematic interpretation of the same book. **


	3. Chapter 3 - Memories

Chapter 3 - Memories

**SPOV**

The news wasn't good. There had been similar, well-orchestrated, attacks in New England and Rome. Unlike us they had not been able to detain the perpetrators with the same ease. I doubted they ever would. The ones we held would most likely offer anything informative, they were pawns ready for sacrifice. They wouldn't have been allowed to be caught with such ease otherwise. Vampires, impure or not, never left behind messes that needed to be cleaned up.

Our impromptu unfuneral had most likely given opportunity that was not in accordance with the rest of the attacks. It was messy and ill prepared, the vampires in question had a bravado ill afforded to those who would seek to destroy a queen. I found that out this evening, though it really shouldn't have surprised me that Pam was more than just simply a royal pain.

I blamed myself. Not for dragging everyone out to Bon Temps where my newly repossessed home now stood as a framework of charcoal ready to collapse. Unknowingly I was the Queen's Telepath and I had skirted my duties. With the no contact order from the AVL Pam and I had kept our distance. I assumed Pam had refrained from outing my skill in protection of me but it had come at the cost of her own.

We resumed our friendship the instant it was permissible but the perfunctory task of scanning her household lay unattended. It was something I did on a monthly basis and whenever a new member of staff applied for a position. Eric's return had laid siege to that for months now.

It had been even longer ago that I had been able to enjoy such a large group of people celebrating life in my old family home. The evening was set to return me to my home. I know my Gran would have swelled with pride as the aromas of her food scented the air while the empty space was filled with life and laughter again. It was what she had always instilled into me of what a home should be, the animated life that was inside it rather than the bones that held it up.

I never understood that analogy so accurately till Eric was holding me up in his embrace while my bones gave way. That's where I found my solace with the thought that my house no longer stood erect. We held on to each other longer than what would be considered appropriate. He basked in my warmth while I held onto him for strength. I don't know why I abandoned this for Pam in the car, I couldn't find the comfort I sought then as I felt it now.

My thoughts of my brother was the only thing that motivated me to remove myself from his arms now. I reminded him of his promise to Louvelle and his sister to check in once he was safe and secure. With reluctance we disengaged and I couldn't help but notice his delight in our equal averseness to the movement.

I didn't know what to think of his friendship with the young werewolf. I feared the girl was infatuated with Eric and he was unknowingly indulging her. I most certainly would have been taken by Eric at her age. As I spoke to her through the image of the webcam earlier that evening I understood why Eric considered her a friend.

Louvelle was completely different to the children I knew of her age. Her maturity had yet to catch up with her inherent wisdom. She offered a perspective to the world that could only be granted from someone so young who knew more than most. Nothing had narrowed her mind yet and I hoped it would remain so.

As a telepath there were few people whose mind I actually wanted to enter. Godric's was one, the fact that I couldn't made him all the more enticing to interact with. Louvelle's mind intrigued me and I had yet to develop a skill that reached across the bandwidth of the internet connection. She was most interested in what I thought of Eric and if we had exchanged words of love yet.

We had barely interacted enough to be considered a first date even with the most inclusive definition of the word. We were a walking and talking romantic comedy to her, if we allowed for it she would follow our interactions with a webcam all day.

I was hardly able to answer the penetrative questions she posed of my relationship to Eric. It was only through Eric's interception and with her approval that I was relieved from the inquisition. Though I was convinced her blood ran closer to Spanish than French. Everything had escalated from that point onwards, from fires and explosions to here. Interned to the basement of my home in full lockdown mode.

I had spent one night like this before under false assumptions of a legitimate threat. It was Pam's fault. She had decided to throw me a surprise birthday party knowing I never wanted it to be a large thing. It had somehow escaped her I was a telepath and overheard everyone preparing for the great reveal while I was bored out of my skull downstairs.

It was a horrible experience and I was sick as a dog for days after for the first time in my life. My weak excuse that I had missed out on the sun was a feeble one but it was what I had chosen to believe. It was most likely the alcohol I consumed to forget my solitary confinement of the day.

With the assurance that Jason was safe and secured by a secondary team provided by Alcide I finally acknowledged my fatigue. The wolves had returned to their usual posts and I sensed a few extra ones which I was sure belonged to Pam. I checked their minds for any ill intent but found them all loyal to her.

There was little point in trying to fight my sleep, if we came under attack now there was little that could save us. The bunker would only hold anyone off for so long, I rested my head in assurance that if that were to happen I would be flown out by Eric. He'd already saved me once tonight and I was sure he wouldn't hesitate to do so once more.

I recognised the signature of his void as it stood guard at my door. I vaguely heard some scratching noises but I knew no rodent could penetrate these walls. It must have been something else and as I tried to establish what it was slumber erased my thoughts.

I woke remembering nothing of my dreams as the previous evenings events flooded my mind. A surprise lay on the pillow beside me. I turned on the dim light on the bedside table and noticed Eric's distinguished form lying motionless in the double bed across the room.

I picked up the bundle of papers wrapped in string from the pillow that lay unused in my bed. As I released the stack from its confines I took in drawing after drawing of my former home on Hummingbird Lane. Every little detail I had shown him was expertly captured on the bright white sheets of paper.

Tears escaped from my eyes. Not for the loss of my home but for the beauty of what he had captured. No photograph could compete with it nor could reality. He had caught the images as they existed in my mind. This gift was richer than any I had ever received.

With reverence I carefully placed the sketches back in the order he had arranged them and tied the string back in place. The sleeves of my nightgown were used to dry my eyes as I took in the time. I should have attended to my complaining bladder and stomach but I didn't.

I left my bed for his.

I rested my head to the moderate heat emanating from his chest, the heavy duvet cocooning us into a world of our own. I drank in the scent of him, the cooking of my grandmother was intermingled with the iron rich smell of graphite and a hint of ash. Beyond that lay the smell that he had carried even when his heart had beat in tune with mine. It called of winter; that uniquely cleansed smell of snow washing away at the earth.

Our hibernation was interrupted by a gentle nudging from Pam who couldn't resist carrying a knowing look of events that didn't take place. Reluctantly I left the warm spot I had inhabited for a few hours leaving Eric alone to his day rest. I pulled on a warm sweater to make myself somewhat presentable before following Pam out. The situation must be really serious as she refrained from commenting on the train wreck that was my improvised ensemble. There wasn't even a hint of a discriminating brow.

They needed my voice to access a secure line. I had always intended for Pam to be added to the security protocol, she was the one who had pushed for this specific outfit after all. If by some miracle all was back to normal I would definitely be putting in that call with the installers.

Godric, Pam and Shahbaz set to teleconferencing to unknown vampires around the world. I think I overheard some French and Latin but I couldn't be sure as I spoke neither. My bladder's hostile threats were finally met and I returned from the bathroom in what would be a Pam approved outfit under normal circumstances.

Shahbaz joined me in the kitchen as I set to improvise a meal. Unfortunately the Royalty Blended never kept long and the stock of True Blood I kept down here had expired. Nothing like an actual emergency to remind you to keep track of these things. Shahbaz turned out to be a keen cook and he was far more than Pam's driver.

He was a member of the Guard of Anûšiya, a regiment of elite warriors. Even among the ranks of the Sanguine they were held in high regard. There were 10,000 of them not one more and not one less. They stood at the command of one Lord Commander and not their maker. They could not procreate lest one of them died. Whoever they turned when their numbers stood below that magic number would turn Sanguine, their line was never plagued by the mutations. The child was a Sanguine or truly dead. Hailing from Mesopotamia they were known as the Persian Immortal as their great number never died down.

As one was defeated the next would step in, the process of turning being instant with the transfusion of the blood. Three days in the ground were obsolete. The distending of the fangs was the most painful part of the instant transformation as new life coursed through their veins. That extra pain fuelled those warriors to greater heights in their first moments as a Guard of the Anûšiya. As fascinating as it all sounded I hoped I would never have to witness it. I had experienced enough upheaval for one night.

While ten thousand men of superior skills was once an army that brought even the bravest to tears, these days the number was less impressive with the growing populace. They were spread out over the world in the service of the royal houses. I had seen Shahbaz spar with a group of human men at Pam's estate once. I now understood these were the mortals he surrounded himself with, who stood at the ready to step in should he or one of his fellow guards die.

The most promising of their legion, like Shahbaz, were put into hibernation pools of blood for centuries. Only roused to be fed the blood of their commandant on sacred days. They captained the smaller units under direction of the Lord Commander. I listened with captivation as we cooked a meal from frozen ingredients while he simultaneously shared the stories of the battles he had fought.

Shahbaz was surprisingly chipper given our situation. I wished he would share the cause of his optimism with me. Maybe his legion of immortals were coming to secure us by sunset but like much in Pam's world it was obvious some things would be shared with me and a whole host of other things never would. As far as I could tell even Eric wasn't fully informed on everything either.

When the stew we had been slaving away at neared completion, nightfall had started to set in and I went to check on the only slumbering vampire. As I peered into the room, with the door set slightly ajar, it still seemed blissfully silent. I yelped a little when what I had presumed was an unmoving boulder suddenly animated to life.

He greeted me with a 'hey' and I returned with a 'hi'. The uncombed softness of his hair made him look boyish. It was an endearing sight and it reminded me he really was young like me despite his immortal status. Godric and Pam would always appear to be younger than the both of us but in this moment in time we were the spring to their winter.

"Were you with me in the bed?" Eric asked me with a hint of confusion. As if he wasn't quite sure of what his body was telling him held any truth.

I wouldn't be able to lie about that if I tried. Eric's heightened senses would always be vastly superior to my attempt at subterfuge. Despite leaving the bed hours ago my scent would linger there. Pam's nose seemed to be especially sensitive to it, she would still smell the presence of a were in my home days later.

"I hope that was ok?" I posed still leaning against the wooden door. The sharp ray of light entering the room from behind me only illuminated the right side of his face. On most, the shading would turn the gentle features on a face sinister. With Eric it suited, darkness and light rolled into one.

My appreciation of it was interrupted as he flicked on the bed side light. His eyes were bright with the injection of lumens. It reminded me of our days in the diner when the sharp light of the sun would make the sky jealous with the clarity and colour of his blue eyes.

"It's more than ok," he replied, to which I let out a small sigh of relief I didn't know I was holding onto. I honestly don't know how well I would have taken it had our situations had been reversed. "I would never chase you from my bed," Eric continued before patting a spot beside him on the bed. His tone implied a leer but his eyes didn't. "Please," he repeated the movement when I didn't immediately make to move.

I obliged and sat on the edge just far enough away to be out of each other's immediate reach. "The drawings are beautiful," I said with gratitude. "They're as if you drew them from my memories. Sometimes I think it's like you know me better than myself."

"I just like to view the world through your eyes," he offered with a kindness I was still unaccustomed to.

I took a moment to consider what he meant to say with that. My telepathy burdened me with the thoughts and musings of so many others. It was rare that I enjoyed the alternate perspective of another's mind. I just couldn't imagine someone actually desired to do so.

I turned my gaze back to him, the hands that sat underneath my thighs were becoming numb with the weight of my own body. He looked at me with anticipation before I answered, "Do you like what you see?"

His answer was given without a moment of pause. "How could I not," he offered sincerely. "You're different from everyone else." My eyes fell to the floor when he used the word to describe the out of the ordinary. It wasn't the first time that I felt like a curiosity to another's scrutiny and it wouldn't be the last. Never had it made me feel good.

Only through the pressure released by his weight from the bed did I know he didn't just teleport in front of me. The spot where my eyes had rested was now inhabited with his kneeling form and his penetrative stare. This proved he knew me better than myself once more.

"Unique, distinct, extraordinary," he spoke with reverence. With that I understood the word as he had spoken it, not as I had chosen to hear it. His next confession caught me unaware. "I lost all my memories when I was turned. Until the Great Reveal Godric saw no use to recover them. The image of you was the first thing that made me remember. For you were so out of the ordinary. You were memorable where everyone else had faded to the background of my mind."

The immeasurable depths of his eyes urged me to believe him. There was no need for it, he had never lied to me. His mind had never betrayed the words spoken from his mouth. It was me who had a hard time accepting, once more, the kindest words now spoken to me. I allowed myself to be warmed by them rather than disregard it as placation.

"You lost all your memories?" I asked suddenly comprehending everything he said. Eric nodded in confirmation, a hint of pain residing alongside the memory of it. "I was asked to help an amnesiac once but their mind had been a scary place to me. It wasn't like a vampires' mind, your voids indicate a presence inaccessible to me. It was just emptiness, a black hole full of helpless thoughts."

It was now his eyes that darted to the floor to a spot where I immediately sank to my knees. I pulled him into my embrace, for his comfort instead of mine. He didn't say anything but I felt the relief wash over him, thawing the frost. I decided then I was seriously going to kick Godric's ass for thinking Eric had no use for his old memories. When I told Eric of my intentions he didn't try to dissuade me, no he simply laughed. Then I joined.

We understood each other, sometimes better than ourselves. Our world may be falling to pieces around us or be exactly the same when we come out. However complicated it was, however dire the news, this confinement had brought us here in each other's arms. I may no longer have a home of my own but it was close enough. These were the foundations my Gran had always spoken of.

**A/N: A character banner has been made for little Louvelle, although I doubt the actress who portrays her will be a surprise to you. Find it through the direct link to the FTI reference page on my profile or navigate to the FTI page at hisviks dot wordpress dot com. **

**Saturday we will see Eric's POV again as he and Sookie share a bit of their pasts apart.**

**Special thanks to VAlady and treewitch703 for taking the time to pre-read and their invaluable feedback****. **


	4. Chapter 4 - Supper

Chapter 4 - Supper

**EPOV**

Sookie had managed to surprise me once more. It had me wondering if it would continue to be a reoccurring theme. Her description of the murky state my brain had resided in when I did not know who I was quieted me. The accuracy was haunting. Her embrace was beautiful. I wanted to own every piece of her because this I refused to share.

Added to that, she intended to cuss out my maker for his bad parenting. Only she would have the audacity to call out one of the most powerful creatures walking this earth because he failed to see what was so clear to her.

I couldn't stop myself. Nor did I want to. She needed to know, so the words tumbled out of my mouth. "I love you." I wasn't expecting a reply or a reciprocation. She was barely processing me being in a state of some sort of life.

"I know."

Of course she knew. She heard it in my mind all those years ago although I had spoken those words as a question to myself then. _Could I be in love with her? _It had been a fleeting thought, not understanding the grasp of the statement. I had answered with yes regardless.

I had told many I loved them and aside from family those words never held any truth. I had no real grasp of the concept until my eyes and heart had found Sookie. Not ever had I uttered those three words to anyone. Supplemented with the obligatory too when required, yes. Even as I spoke them then I recognized it for the lie that it was. The falsehood was an easier one to carry than to hold out for the real thing. I was a man weak to my loins.

I should probably have never told Freyda when she demanded to hear it over the phone once. Looking back, it was the beginning of our collective demise. I gave her something and then proceeded to prove she wasn't worthy of the words. I hadn't even said the words out of obligation. I had done it so she would stop hounding me for it and I could get back to whatever I was doing at the time. I'm pretty sure it was another woman.

We both knew the comfort of our embrace had lasted too long and her grumbling stomach gave us both an excuse to ignore her embarrassment over it. The smell of the cooking had come second place to the scent that surrounded me when I woke up. As delighted that I was with the smell of her in it, simultaneously I knew I was alone in the bed and in the room. I doused myself in it despite that, as if it were a costly perfume.

The evidence was there, she had slept beside me for a while. When she had come to check on me my unsure question was confirmed with the truth. I had almost been scared to think I had merely imagined it and had steeled myself for another correction of my assumptions.

"Let's get you fed," I said lifting her of her knees with a helping hand. "It smells good."

"I hope you like it," she said with an appreciative smile. "We had to improvise with what was there. Unfortunately the blood stock is past its due date. I hope you like stew."

I seated her at the candlelit table. The other vampires of our party had taken their meal to the control room. It would be romantic under any other circumstances, a home cooked meal by candlelight. Tonight however the candles were merely for Sookie's benefit considering the poor illumination of the emergency lights. The food was nourished with her care that much was clear to me from the moment I took a first taste. She was happy to acknowledge my compliment of her cooking though she did give some credit to the apparently multi-talented driver. I kept my annoyance of their time spent together deeply burrowed, though my maker seemed to peer into the room briefly carrying a questioning look at the same moment.

"I would have offered my own blood if you were all in need of it," she said startling me with her charitable nature. Of all the things I would want her to be generous with, her blood assuredly wasn't one. I didn't know if it was because I was so drawn to her but it called to me like no other. The scent was heavenly, inducing me into an altered state on just that alone. "I'd make a terrible meal for four."

I laughed politely at her quip. "Have you ever given your blood?" I asked though I really only wanted to hear that she never had. Thankfully she shook her head in compliance to my desired answer.

"I know it's not just food to you all," she offered in explanation. "I gave Pam permission that I'd be a donor in emergencies. Blood emergencies that is."

I chuckled at that. Without that addendum I'm sure Pam would have been hitting her up for sexual deprivation more often than not.

"You never dated a vampire? Our lack of thoughts must be an enticing aspect in a partner?" I asked because I like to torture myself with my own jealousy. She looked at me as if she wanted to say something but held back.

"The resident vampire of Bon Temps asked me out once," she said after some contemplation. It reminded me that I never sent in that check to repair the dent I caused on that vampire's car. As a Sanguine I wasn't required to but I felt the need to make the payment. "I was hesitant. Some men only talk to your breasts but with him it was like he was talking to what lay waiting in my veins. I felt like the drug of choice for a junkie who needed his fix." Her whole body shivered with disgust at the memory of it.

With that information I was happy I never sent the Impurus the monetary repair. I might even be inclined to add to the damage.

"I think Pam scared him away after I refused his advances for a second time," Sookie said in between two bites. Forget extra dents I was going to crush his car. "He's been cordial ever since."

"You're not officially Pam's are you?" I asked with worry. It was clear to me they had no physical relationship but they were unusually close and I wondered how far Pam's protection reached and whether it would interfere with my own goals to be with Sookie.

"She'd like that," Sookie smiled. I was sure Pam would and was plotting every moment. I would. I am. "But no."

Relief seemed to be the word of the evening as her answers seemed to be providing me with just that in response to every nerve wrecking question I dared ask.

"Are you anything else besides a telepath?" When she didn't seem to grasp the full extent of my question I supplemented, "You're unlike any being I've ever come across and that's disregarding my attraction to you. Are you something other than human?" I had refrained from using the word different again. I knew it triggered something within her, it was an accurate adjective to describe her but her mind dwindled on the negative definition of it.

"I don't know," she replied softly. "I was born like this. I asked Pam once and she said it was possible but she didn't know. Meet any other telepaths while you were gone?"

I shook my head. Even if I did, they wouldn't have interested me as much as this one. "Godric told me he only ever met the one," I said reaching over for her hand. I squeezed it softly. It was clear to me that the source of her telepathy was a vulnerable subject to her. "Turns out it was you."

"So that's how you figured it out."

"No," I offered. "Louvelle takes the credit for that, and she took my credit card along with it in triumph."

She laughed delicately at the thought of a young child unmasking her well-guarded skill and robbing me blind in the process. Apparently handing out my money to the women in my life was a behaviour I'd never relinquish. Thankfully the women that I indulged that with now were the ones I actually cared for. Despite the harsh reverberation of her giggles on the concrete walls I knew from that point onwards as long as we were laughing we would be ok.

"Why did you never ask me to be your mistress?" she asked when her laughter died down. I wasn't prepared for such a serious question after her amusement but I intended to answer honestly nonetheless.

"Would you have said yes?" My question was just as inquisitive as hers. It took her an extended moment to gather her thoughts.

"It wasn't worthy of the woman who my grandmother raised me to be, but back then I probably would have," she spoke so easily, from this I knew that like me she had entertained a few 'what ifs' of her own. "Yeah."

We sat silent for a moment. There was no doubt in my mind that we were both thinking the same thing, what could have been. I had run the scenario several times and in my mind I knew for certain the outcome would never have been good. We would have poisoned each other within our confinements and if we didn't Freyda would have. There was no room for love in my life back then and Sookie didn't deserve to be a victim of the toxicity that was my marriage.

"That's why then." Her eyes raised up from contemplation to meet mine. Our meal lay forgotten, we'd had our fill and our conversation seemed more nourishing than anything else.

"I don't understand why you hold me in such high regard." I hated her self-doubt but I understood it. Despite the extraordinary nature of her gift, it was a handicap at the same time. I understood it because I had lived it. I proved to be an extraordinary Sanguine in my first years but my mind was handicapped without my memories and I couldn't help but feel ostracized for it. Whether it be by my own mind or the actions of others.

Venom was always capable of attacking from both sides, intended or not. I knew she endured far more than I ever had and at ages where such actions could be crippling. Yet she persevered, it was an enduring quality that prevailed above all others. With it was her resistance to accept what I attempted to make her understand. Unfortunately for her my persistence rivalled hers.

"I know you're worth more than anyone has ever been willing to give to you," I said knowing I was venturing into dangerous territory. The issue of my inheritance was a subject between us that was yet to be resolved and I was a tactical bastard that wouldn't let this opportunity pass. In this situation she couldn't run from me or the conversation, so I went all in. "That includes myself."

The lovely colour of her pink stained cheeks sank away to a pallor that didn't suit her. It reminded me of the comment she had made to Pam the night before. She intended to use my vacant grave as her own one day. While I usually valued pragmatism, in that moment I couldn't and now I knew it as truth. She could never be a vampire because with the loss of her beautiful golden skin tone that innate light that was uniquely her would vanish along with it. I could never be the cause of the world's loss of that.

"Eric I…" she started but I interjected her knowing her response wasn't anything I wanted to hear or would help our conversation along.

"I will never be able to thank you enough for how you withstood in my years of absence," I started while my grasp of her hand became firmer than it should. Her body was searching for distance that in this moment I refused to grant. "The way you took charge and held everything upright proved to me I made the right choice. Everything my family had built was granted safety under your stewardship. You pretty much negotiated a divorce with Freyda I could only dream about. Those are the things I care about. Numbers on my bank account leave me cold." She was quiet and I let her be.

"All right then," she said after some contemplation of my words.

"So you'll keep it all?" I asked, hopeful we were done with what appeared to be the sword of Damocles* hanging over the beginnings of our relationship. Threatening at any moment to sever the beginnings of a tie.

"I didn't say that," she responded with terse lips. "But I'll consider it without flat out rejecting it."

It wasn't what I wanted to hear but it was close enough. She had stopped running away from me for now. I knew I'd always be chasing her but then I never enjoyed an easy conquest. As long as she was in my grasp I could live with that. Like Sookie said, I was never scared to get my hands dirty.

When I stood to clean the dirty dishes she halted my hands. "Leave it for now," she urged. "This might be the only peace and quiet we get for a while." I returned to my seat and she pulled my hand back in its former stance. It was nice, like we were any other couple enjoying the aftermath of a good meal. Well if you squinted a bit and forgot the cinderblock walls and utilitarian atmosphere.

"Sure," I replied happy to enjoy the moment of silence with her. "But I'm doing the dishes and I'll rope in the others by their fangs if I have to."

"I can't wait to see Pam on drying duty," she smiled back at me. "Honestly I don't think Pam would know what to do with a kitchen towel. She might mistake it for fashion accessory."

"How did you and Pam meet?" I pondered aloud. I had probed Pam plenty on her relationship to Sookie but she had always remained tight lipped, so I had stopped incessantly beating on her for answers. She invoked some sort of sisterhood ban on selling out Sookie's private conversation. Isa had been similarly hesitant on revealing the intricacies of her relationship to Sookie. It all fell like a giant conspiracy to keep me deliberately in the dark because despite knowing so much about her on paper I know that veneer barely covers what lies beneath.

"Charity function," she replied before taking a sip of her water. "We were seated next to each other. Don't remember the cause though, I've been to too many I guess. She'll know, she has a memory like a vault." I knew the feeling, I had attended far too many of those anonymous events in the past, so they all tended to just blur into one long never ending evening.

"She told me my dress was atrocious and I agreed with her," she continued. "No one ever really talks to you at those things. It's all niceties and fakery but she was real and I liked that. We've been friends ever since. And she's dictated my wardrobe from that point on."

"I like you like this," I complimented. She was wearing casual clothes; jeans, simple white t-shirt and a well draped soft cardigan in a beige colour. It had enhanced the feel of our embrace earlier, she was all comfort. She didn't have a speck of make-up on and despite how enchanting it made her look the evening before, I liked her bare of it. This felt like a person I could reach and to prove my point for once she thanked me for my praise.

"Your world was quite an adjustment to make," she confessed. "It was weird that people liked me. That they put up with my quirks because I had money all of a sudden. It gave me an instant respect that I didn't think I deserved. Pam helped me navigate between the ass kissers and the ones who were actually worth my time."

I knew the sentiment well, despite growing up in an egalitarian society being rich from birth always came with privileges that were unfounded in relation to accomplishments. At the same time any achievement I ever made on my own was always attributed to my family name or fortune. It's why I had taken the position in Louisiana, so I could prove my worth without the stigma of the family name. Freyda had, however, continually dropped the importance of my last name to anyone who would listen.

"So am I?" I asked.

"Are you what?" she returned, her mind obviously lost to somewhere else.

"Worth your time?" It was a redundant question. I simply wanted my ego stroked, considering the careful path we were treading it would be the only thing to get stroked by her for a while.

"Yes," she answered without hesitation. "I meant it what I said at your grave that first time. I felt cheated for never getting to know you. Now on top of that you have almost a decade of time to fill me in with."

"I'll be happy to sing for my supper every night," I said to which she smiled. Though I hoped she wouldn't take me up on that in the literal sense. From the sounds I heard coming out of the shower last night it turned out we were pretty much evenly matched when it came to out of tune singing. The Swedish lyrical gods surely passed over me when handing out those golden vocal chords.

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" she asked and so I did.

….

….

….

**A/N: For those of you who haven't seen it yet: in celebration of my fanfic birthday this past Wednesday I wrote a silly little one shot called The Doctor is in that has Dr Ludwig setting right some of the wrongs of CH's dead ever after. Please check it out if you like.**

**Special thanks to VAlady and treewitch703 for taking the time to pre-read and their invaluable feedback.**

_*Sword of Damocles [sourced from Wikipedia]: According to the story, pandering to his king, Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority surrounded by magnificence, Dionysius was truly extremely fortunate. Dionysius then offered to switch places with Damocles, so that Damocles could taste that very fortune first hand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the king that he be allowed to depart because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate, realizing that with great fortune and power come also great peril and anxiety._

_The sword of Damocles is frequently used in allusion to this tale, epitomizing the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power. More generally, it is used to denote the sense of foreboding engendered by a precarious situation, especially one in which the onset of tragedy is restrained only by a delicate trigger or chance. _


	5. Chapter 5 - Pity Party

_A/N: Sorry posted IAG instead of FTI. A/N below will probably explain why... Thank you Sky for pointing it out!_

Chapter 5 – Pity Party (aka Life in the Dreamhouse)

**PPOV**

Bless Sookie Stackhouse and her weird idea of a party. Had we not gone out last night I would have been caught in an explosion. As a Sanguine we can withstand a lot and even if I had survived such an assault it would have taken me months to be at full strength. Disadvantaged is something I can't afford to be in these newly turbulent times. My ruined custom Zanotti's were the least of my concerns now.

While the two star struck lovers were busy playing house, the rest of us were dealing with the situation at hand. Every fucking Sanguine household had to have their say. I hated the roll call. The philosophy of our house never changed. Honestly, if I were to sire an impure blood I would stake it myself, but it was a choice I wanted to be my own, not one that our familial line demanded of us. I didn't think the lives of the impure were worth living.

We Sanguine move with the times, are considered progressive but the Impurus are stuck. Lost to time and darkness. I see the damage inflicted by the impure blooded in my territory every day. Genocide wasn't my idea of a solution but things were coming to a head and our house's continued exclusive procreation stance was bringing trouble to my otherwise stable queendom. The great reveal was for our sakes not for theirs and I was being presented with the bill now.

Thank goodness for Godric's presence, there's only so much political bullshit I can digest on my own. Godric and I weren't supposed to ever get along. My maker sent me to him because I was in a petulant and self-indulgent stage of my unlife. According to Sookie I'm still stuck in that setting. Godric will attest I was far worse back then.

I was amused when Godric had suddenly appeared unannounced on the eve of a soirée. He was never one to show up without cause and at the sight of Sookie he asked to be introduced. I laughed at him and told him many had tried and failed, including myself. Eric Northman in his assumed death was my personal cockblocker and as magnificent as Godric is I doubted even he could win her over with his modest charm.

Godric worried me when he said he just wanted to know her platonically. While he was made for this existence, just as I, time travelled differently through him. He wasn't the brooding type but he dabbled with depression. His lack of interest in my alluring friend had me concerned for his mental health once more. I had vowed to speak to him of it later that night and despite his lack of sexual interest in Sookie his mood had overturned miraculously in her presence.

I wasn't surprised at that. Sookie has an inner charm and charisma that outshines her natural poise. She isn't a conventional beauty, she's slightly off. Her features are graceful and her smile is radiant, the gap in between her teeth should detract from her appeal but instead it enhances it. As soon as you find perfection you realise how boring it is when confronted with it over and over again. No, true beauty is found in the small imperfections that distinguish one from the herd.

I thought that like any supernatural with a fondness for the female eye Godric had fallen under Sookie's spell. He called me up more often to ask about her than of me. It wasn't till he showed up with my personal tormentor in the flesh that I understood. The obsession over love lost went two ways. A decade apart and Barbie and Ken were still only concerned with what could have been. I cringed at the thought that made me Skipper in this scenario of Life in the Dreamhouse.

I had stood witness to patience, to diligence, but none like theirs. With Sookie I had tried valiantly to help her move on, first in my own selfish pursuits later for her own. I never chased an unwilling woman for long but with Sookie I did and in the process we became friends. I never had a friend before, at least not one like Sookie. All she ever demanded of me was my friendship, nothing else. Our relationship was more pure than any that I have known, including the one with my maker. With that realisation I couldn't care anymore that she would never sleep beside me in bed. As far as I was concerned I had the best of both worlds, an intimate and gratifying relation with one and carnal pleasures with a whole host of others.

I had missed Sookie dearly after Eric's return. Her absence made me realise what a huge part of my existence she filled with her mere presence. I was ready to bite the bitch Nan Flanagan's head off for her annoying edict. It had allowed me to get to know Eric instead. He was still a fledgling as a Sanguine but he was extremely impressive regardless of his age. I finally understood why Sookie had latched on to his memory for so long. He had honour ingrained into him. It was why he was so well suited with Godric.

Sookie has yet to explain properly why she continued to carry a torch for him for so long. When I had asked it of her in the past, all she could come up with was that he thought such nice things about her. That all sounded very 'nice' and 'vanilla' but it hardly spoke of great passion simmering beneath the surface. Yet when they stood in a room together it was there, ready and waiting to unleash itself.

They would never have been able to work out had Eric remained human, as nice as his thoughts were, he disappeared before he could think a bad one of her. Despite how much you love someone a nasty thought will inevitably surface. Sookie had also shared with me that a human's touch was especially assaulting on her mind, so as meant to be as they were back then, it was the transformation and time apart that allowed for it to be able to happen now. The circumstances in which, were of course as difficult as their beginnings. It was clear that nothing would ever be easy for them but I knew from experience that something as special between those two always carried a cost.

I had peered into the room once or twice to distract my mind from the incessant voices wanting to be heard all around the world. The two of them were sickeningly sweet. Somehow Eric managed to get past her natural guarded demeanour, something that had taken me months to accomplish. I wasn't above helping him get things moving along. I regarded him as my brother and the two of them treading waters so carefully was worthy entertainment of distraction from the cesspit that is vampire affairs.

It would be a few more hours before a contingent from the Guard of Anûšiya would arrive to enforce the martial law in my area. The number of Impurus in my area were large because I was known for treating them fairly. It was why it stung to be such a target. Granted there were other Royal Courts that raised members from the Impurus to coveted ranks, I always considered them but I had yet to come across one that fit the post. I refused to simply place one in a position for mere appearances.

I remember with disgust how Sookie's former neighbour had solicited for a job as my procurer, a station that did not exist in my court. He even went so far as to say he was already courting a rare creature for my delight. I never had a need for a procurer and while I fully acknowledge my abhorrence for menial work, my meals are never a difficult task to secure. When I discovered he had been chasing Sookie it took me all the inner calm that Godric had taught me to find, not to end the foul blooded's life instantly.

Apparently Bill Compton had missed the memo that Sookie Stackhouse was under my protection and his punishment would never allow him to forget that again. It wasn't the first time tonight that my mind fell to Bill Compton's name. The close proximity of his home had made me suspicious and I had already issued a warrant for his arrest. The trackers on staff had yet to find a conclusive trace and that had made me even more suspicious of the civil war veteran.

The apprehended vampire trio were known troublemakers. They had clearly taken gain of a sudden advantageous situation. A flammable house full of high ranking Sanguines. I had the unfortunate honour of dealing with them before at Sookie's request, they had been plaguing her former hometown, destroying the reputation we so diligently built up. Liam, Malcolm and Diane could best be described as anarchists. Like most of the impure blooded they fought authority and control. Even when released from their maker they were always held at the control of the Sanguine. We are the haves to their nots.

I have some sympathy for their cause but they have yet to prove they are worthy of carrying the responsibility like we Sanguine do. Our relationship to the human world is barely out of unchartered waters and now our internal struggles were set to rock the boat.

I sighed rubbing at the temples of my head as if I were still capable of getting headaches. Thankfully our teleconferencing marathon seemed to be coming to an end. The head of our house was the only line of connection left. I sat down once more knowing she would not have a conversation with us that was to be considered brief.

"How goes things with your child," Aelia asked of Godric with a lopsided smile. We were both raised to alarm when she continued, "and his intended telepathic bride."

I didn't like this. There was a reason I kept quiet about Sookie and her abilities, at the hands of the Sanguine anything of promise becomes a negotiable tool. I cared for Sookie too damn much for her to be an asset or a toy. My face held the full force of my threatening anger as it was directed at Godric. I knew Sookie had shared her ability with him on the night they had met. It was up to her to whom she shared it with but it was not up to those who knew of it to share that information freely. Instead of finding guilt in Godric's face, his mirrored mine. We were both accusing each other of the same betrayal. Which left Eric.

Godric and I had reached the same conclusion at the same time. His face was strained with the pain of it. Naturally he blamed himself, he had taught Eric much but he had kept him out of the Machiavellian mechanisations of our politics. At our quiet Aelia proved just how cleverly manoeuvring we Sanguines can be when dedicated to that particular craft.

"You thought I would really allow a Sanguine as formidable as he to court a mere mortal," Aelia smiled with a menace only she possessed. "You're losing your touch Godric."

"What is she?" I couldn't help but ask. Everyone including Sookie knew she was something more than human. Not even Godric's vast wisdom had yielded an answer to what she was.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out, poodle," she replied with a saccharine tone that made me gag whenever I heard it. Under normal circumstances I liked Aelia a great deal but when she was out of her familial role we were greeted by her political alter ego that had ruled for millennia with reason. "You have until tomorrow night. I expect you to be there to receive me on the landing strip." With that I knew that things were going to get more painful than getting that particular stripe fashioned on your pubic mound.

Without notice the connection was disconnected. I had forgotten that one could have a brief conversation with Aelia, it was always the announcement to a larger one. Her unexpected presence was never a good sign and added to that our house's apparent interest in Sookie only sought to make me more nervous. I wordlessly followed a determined Godric out to the living area.

"Eric," he commanded with the full force of his two thousand years. Under any other circumstance I would have cackled at the sight of a befuddled Eric being dragged off by Godric at half his height but tonight was not the time for laughter or joy. I gave Sookie a warning look not to interfere and she was smart enough to adhere. I closed the door to our unused bedroom leaving Sookie outside and watched the fear and distress flicker across Eric's face. He was still so easy to read with his exaggerated human expressions. It was almost endearing. Almost.

"What have you told Aelia of Sookie?" Godric demanded with a cool rage that once had me bending to his every command. I still shivered at the memory of it.

The poor boy looked like a puppy with his enlarged eyes. His devotion to Godric was astounding, I recognised it as my own. Godric didn't gain respect through punishment or fear. Instead one suffered in carrying his disappointment of you. It was more crippling than anything else.

"Nothing," he replied quietly. "I only told her I was visiting someone from my past. She told me good luck."

Godric seemed quickly satisfied, their bond functioning as his personal polygraph test. Eric apparently lacked the knowledge to read his maker as his tense demeanour remained without relent. I told Godric in our ancient French tongue to put the boy out of his misery and only received a questioning look in return. An unnecessary gust of air expelled from my lungs as I realised I seemed to be the only one speaking all the spoken and unspoken languages in the room.

"Who have you told of Sookie's telepathy?" I asked the shivering pup. "Our house seems to know of her ability and wants her in the fold."

"Sookie is mine," he growled out as if to prove he was nothing of the infant dog I had just compared him to.

Indeed she was _his_ even before he came back into her life. He was lucky our house had the same objective as he, although I was yet to find out how unscathed they would both come out of that. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the display as Godric seemed to finally catch on and tried to calm his child's flare up through their bond.

"Who have you told?" I demanded again my patience having depleted with my spent energies of the day. There better be a really nice donor waiting when we get out of this lockdown or I swear whether she's Eric's or not I'll be demanding my emergency blood contingency from Sookie.

"No one," he screamed. "I would never betray her like that. I didn't even know what she was for certain till she told me."

Godric gave a minute nod to attest the validity of his statement. I knew the list of suspects was short. The demon lawyer was out of the question he couldn't betray her if he tried, it was imbedded in his DNA. That left her brother, Eric's sister and the little were.

"Louvelle," Godric and I said in unison.

"No," Eric responded vehemently springing to her defence. "She would never."

"Her brother and your sister have both received the laser treatment to avert our glamour," I informed knowing all too well. I had tried bedding them both to no avail. Stupid monogamy.

"If this information was retrieved through glamour it can't be Louvelle," he continued in his denial. "They cannot glamour a were."

Under normal circumstances that would be true but the young girl was not fully matured at her tender age. Even if she wasn't glamoured teenage girls were loose lipped. Whether Eric liked it or not she was the most likely suspect and I didn't refrain from telling him so. Before he could continue his rant of denial a mere look from Godric forced his silence. His petulance wasn't that different from mine by the looks of it.

"Even if she is the one that leaked what difference does it make now?" a soft voice from the door asked. In our heightened discussion none of us had taken in Sookie's sudden presence. "We should be focusing on what we are going to do next. They won't be the first to seek me out for my telepathy and they most likely won't be the last."

We didn't need to blink as vampires but all three of us did in quick succession anyhow.

"You all talk really loud," she said with a tone that was supposed to read as apologetic.

"Who?" Eric asked the worry lacing his eyes.

"FBI, CIA, Mossad, FBS, Interpol and a couple of privately held security companies," she shrugged as if it were completely unimpressive. "I'm lucky I inherited Eric's money. I was too much in the public eye to just disappear from one day to the next. I consult now and then but only for the good guys."

I looked at her aghast, for all the years that we knew each other so well, she had never spoken one word of it. She went on small trips now and then usually dragging her brother along. Now I realised there was far more to those trips than I thought. She always picked the strangest destinations.

"How do they know?" Godric requested in a tone so gentle I hardly recognised it as his.

"I grew up as a struggling telepath in full sight of a town that talks for leisure," she returned with her head leaning on the doorframe. "My long lost cousin tipped off the FBI when she was in need of leniency for her own crimes. And I'm pretty sure those spy rings are as gossipy as the old ladies of Bon Temps. I downplay the effectiveness of it and help with causes my conscious can support. I'm surprised it took the supernatural world this long to catch on."

Within an instant Eric had stood in front of her with his impressive flight and speed. Show off. His hands held her sudden blushing cheeks. The worry in his eyes had transformed to admiration that blew what he held for Godric to pieces.

"God you're beautiful," he whispered to her before plundering her lips.

And so Godric and I stood awkwardly as witnesses to their ever deepening kiss.

Some party this is.

**A/N: True confession; I may be a little intoxicated while posting this (bite me I just delivered a major project and there was cause for drinks) but apparently alcoholic persuasion got my elusive graphic muse working her tiny little brains. She thinks she was funny after reading a snarky comment of Pam's which altered the title slightly and had me spending fifteen minutes drawing up 'unique' character banners. Drunk muse is high on her own hilarity, I will have to see what my pounding brain will think of it in the morning. So I suggest to check out the character banners on my blog (hisviks dot wordpress dot com) while they're still there if you're into that sort of thing ;) **

**The reference page on the blog has been updated outlining Pam's queendom and an explanation on the Guard of Anûšiya. The family tree has also been updated to indicate Aelia's position in the house of Aurelie.**

**Direct links are up on my profile…**

**Story will be back on Saturday with SPOV and we'll finally get out of the basement and some quality E/S time.**

**Special thanks to VAlady and treewitch703 for taking the time to pre-read and their invaluable feedback.**


	6. Chapter 6 - Control

Chapter 6 - Control

**SPOV**

Eric really can kiss like there's no tomorrow. Though I'd like there to be a next day so I can receive another just like this. Soft yet firm but I had yet to make acquaintance with his tongue. So I invited him in by stroking my own at his bottom lip and seeking the defence walls of his teeth. It happened before I realised what I had done. His fangs descended and the soft tissue was lacerated and blood poured from my mouth to his. There was nothing pleasant from that point on as he sucked profusely while the tenderness that was there lay forgotten. It was but a second till he pulled away with eyes dilated and an alarmedGodric stood between us.

His healing saliva had cured the wound but my tongue was suitably numb from the deprivation of blood. My breaths were ragged and I stumbled with my back against the doorframe. I didn't like seeing Eric like this, looking so ashamed. It was my fault not his, I wanted to reassure him of that but I had no interest in discussing the technicality of our kiss with an audience. It was bad enough they were there to witness it in the first place. I gave him an apologetic look but it hardly seemed to register.

Before I could utter a coherent word Godric had whisked him away and Pam pulled me beside her on one of the beds. I didn't want to talk about this with her, Pam had enough dominion over my life as it was. I had always allowed it because it pertained to parts of my life I didn't care about. Eric was not one of those.

"He is young and not well versed with fresh feeds," Pam offered when I remained adamantly mute of what was coursing through my own mind. I refused to look at her in attempt to avoid talking further of it, the blank wall was a particularly interesting sight to me tonight. "From your scent I know you would taste better than most."

I had to roll my eyes at that. Pam had told me this many times and it always made me feel like a tasty piece of meat. It was the only time Pam ever would make me feel uncomfortable and that takes her continued lesbian advances in regard. I initially thought it a ploy to get me to her bed but others had subtly noted on it since. Even the weres in my employ had noted how sweet I naturally smelled. They couldn't just compliment me on the shininess of my hair.

Thankfully we were interrupted by Shahbaz announcing that his brothers in arms had arrived. I was dying for some fresh air and to look at the night sky. To feel like an inhabitant walking the earth again instead of residing in its ground. Unlike the creatures of darkness I seemed to be surrounding myself with, there was nothing healing about the soil to me.

I picked up my pace to disengage the lock that led back to the upper floors. I passed by the bedroom Eric and I had shared and heard whispers of Swedish. I had a hard time gaging Eric's relationship to Godric. I knew Godric to be an exceptional person but from what I had understood so far he hadn't always placed Eric's best interest first. I was still reeling from the knowledge that, were it not for the Great Reveal, Eric would have been doomed to an eternity as an amnesiac. No matter how many new memories he would have made he would always be walking around with a hole in his soul. One that had nothing to do with me.

I knew from Pam the maker child bond was complex. According to her, the one who made her held her heart the dearest but could punish her like no other. It wasn't physical punishment that caused the damage. That would be a useless exercise with the Sanguine, they healed instantly and what would cause great pain to an Impurus or a mortal would feel like a small slap to them. Obedience amongst the Sanguine was cultivated through that unique bond. Disappointing their maker weighed heavier on them than anything else. It was almost as if it were ingrained into their DNA, their wellbeing rested on the approval of their parent.

Pam had lost a recently turned cousin when his maker unexpectedly perished. He couldn't live without the support or reprimand of his maker. He withered away and died without cause. Pam had been particularly fond of him as they were turned in short succession of each other. It took Pam a good couple of decades before she was able to suffice without the constant presence of her maker. She had admitted that the sexual component of their relationship had complicated things further so perhaps that was not the norm.

Pam suspected Eric and Godric's relationship wasn't as complex as hers and I hoped she was correct in that assumption. I would never wish to be the human in between a maker and his child. There was no use to even attempt to compete as such.

I invited the list of names Shahbaz had written out phonetically for me in order for them to pass the threshold of the wards. The squadron of expert fighters was quite the sight as they kneeled down in the patch of grass in fealty of Pam. The procedure was repeated when Godric emerged besides Pam. A convoy of armoured vehicles stood ready and waiting for Pam and her company to leave. Eric had yet to appear from the confines of the basement this entire time.

Godric and Shahbaz seemed to take command of the Guards of Anûšiya while Pam led me back inside. I knew this face far too well. It was Pam in her take charge mode, one even I had difficulty arguing with. I sat down with a glass of sweet tea knowing I wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"I want to help," I interjected before it would be an argument. "If I had resumed screening your staff like I always did this wouldn't have happened."

For once I could see the age and weariness of her continued existence on Pam's face as she gave me a tight smile. I didn't know everything about the situation but I knew it weighed heavily on her conscience. "The leak isn't human," she sighed. "There was no new staff hired since you last made the rounds. It's either a were or one of our own."

"I'm sorry Pam," I offered. I knew she valued loyalty above everything else, this betrayal had to have cut deeply. While my grasps on weres' thoughts was minimal I was always able to sense emotions and intent aside from the occasional thought. Regardless we both knew the betrayal lay at the hands of a vampire rather than any other.

"I'd like for you to remain by Eric's side for now," she informed me. "We need to prepare for Aelia's arrival tomorrow and I rather have him worrying over you here than distracting others with your sole safety."

"You'll take my help when you need it," I insisted. Pam simply nodded in acquiescence as she stood ready to depart. I waved her, Godric and Shabaz off. Two Guards of Anûšiya stayed behind guarding the outer perimeters.

My home was empty again apart from the void in the basement. It was a strange sensation, I was used to being alone now but despite the circumstances that had filled up my home it had been nice. Eric's absence at sending Pam and Godric off didn't leave me confused. It was a Sanguine thing, they never said goodbye. Pam said it was a bit of arrogance on their behalf. Humans started saying goodbye to each other out of fear of not seeing them return alive again. Fate was a cruel mistress in tough times. The Sanguines always saw each other again no matter what length of time in between.

I warmed him a bottle of Royalty blended and descended down the stairs. I found him much like I had when he first woke for the night. A small smile crept onto my face as I saw he had made both our beds. The pillows still sat slightly askew but it was clear he had put his best effort into it.

He graciously accepted my offered liquid meal as I settled myself in the armchair beside him. He sipped at it slowly and carefully.

"About earlier," I started. I immediately had to grab his hand to stop the apology threatening to come from his lips as my eyes pleaded with him to let me finish what I was about to say. "It was my fault. I know you're a vampire now but sometimes I forget. I was careless in my actions."

He sat his drink down and looked at me attentively as if he was truly regarding me for the first time. I don't know if it was conscious or not but his thumb caressed the protruding ends of my knuckles. He was still so human to me, in his actions and expressions. Between the two of us we'd probably be mistaken in our mortal states for the other's. I had always assumed it was my association with Pam that had most believing I was a Sanguine. Pam however, had informed me it had more to do with the poker face that had emerged alongside my telepathy.

It also meant that despite my lack of ability to read into their minds I could read their expressions better than most. Eric was young by their standards and from what I had understood earlier that night he had spent very little time around other Sanguines.

"Sookie," he said with a sigh. "I lost control, it was I who was careless."

All seemed to come down to that with vampires. Control, having it and losing it. With Eric I knew it was different. He had always been firmly in control in his human life, his house spoke of it in every meticulously planned millimetre of it. Everything had a carefully fitted place in his life. It is how he knew I would never be able to fit in it. I wasn't a mistress and I couldn't be his wife.

I shook my head in disagreement, "Who pulled you away? Godric or yourself?"

Despite the flurry of speeds in which it had all happened we both knew the answer to that question. He had moved himself away from me the moment the blood hit the back of his throat. Godric had arrived between us a millisecond later. His head hung slightly in defeat of my argument. We both liked to blame ourselves for things beyond our control because in a sense that brought us some command of the situation. It absolved us of our helplessness. Fate and chance were mistresses we both despised. They had pulled us apart before. Perhaps we should be more forgiving now that they had brought us to each other once more.

"Would you like to go for a drive? I could really use some fresh air," I offered in distraction of earlier events. I had missed driving the Corvette and with him it wouldn't feel like taking possession of it as entirely my own. His eyes told me yes but his words told me no.

"I can't," he offered in an explanation that didn't seem his own. "I am to stay in this room unless your safety calls for it."

It wasn't hard to recognise a maker's command. It _was_ hard to see it enslave Eric like that but that's how the Sanguine bound the young to their side. Devotion and loyalty were paramount to their collective survival and the attacks of the previous night proved the need for just that. It still made it difficult for me to stand witness to that. Luckily my extensive experience with legal jargon had proven me an excellent detector of loopholes.

"Well my safety demands you by my side," I said with a triumphant smirk as I pulled at his hand to follow my feet up the stairs. "So follow me." I saw him carry an equally satisfied smile as he passed over the threshold of the confining room with ease. He frowned a little when we got to the garage. Something had happened between him and the Corvette and I had yet to find out exactly what. Jason's truck was still in Bon Temps if it hadn't been swept up in the fire. The continued onset of his frown and fallen mood gave me cause to an idea.

I entered the necessary codes and slowly the garage floor opened to reveal the only other car of his that I had kept. It had come in years after his death and was destined to be a museum piece and as such I had kept it hidden away from Jason's prying eyes. Eric had ordered it years in advance, one in a series of ninety-nine. His eyes filled with unbridled glee at the resurfacing of it.

"Still don't want your inheritance back," I teased with the keys dangling in my hands. He growled like the vampire he was and it was as if he was speaking directly to what resonated in between my thighs. If it could I'm sure the kitten that resided there would have purred in return.

"You make quite the argument," he returned as he stalked towards me. "How about just the car."

His hand engulfed my tightly clutched one making it clear neither one was going to give in. We were at another standstill, thankfully it was a playful one. So fuelled by the spirit of coming out of events unscathed I caught him off guard by licking up the ridge of his neck. I barely caught the cursing of 'minx' directed my way as I sprinted into the driver's seat. I victoriously opened the signature Koenigsegg's door to him and patted the empty seat beside me.

His poorly acted disappointment was a suitable performance considering the car model name was named after the Swedish verb of 'to act'. I beat his instructive words on how to start the car by quickly and successively performing the actions before the words left his mouth. I couldn't help but giggle at the miffed look on his face as the engine sang in delight at my attentions. I had never understood the fascination with fast cars till I experienced the feel of a mechanical beast coming to life underneath you, notifying that you were in for one hell of a ride. We both needed that right now, escaping death knew how to inform you to take a grasp of life.

I carefully edged us out of the garage with my windows down, I tossed the keys to the Corvette to Alcide knowing he stood no chance in hell of following us with his standard fleet of cars. With the Corvette he _might_ stand a chance. The wolf grinned widely knowing exactly what he was in store for.

"So why did you keep this one?" Eric asked as I slowly drove to the gates. The low suspension required extra care till we made it to the smooth asphalt outside. The truth was I really liked the car but I would never admit to that.

"Like anyone would buy this. It has your name written all over it," I told him. "Literally."

It was a lame defence. I would have received twice the amount for what Eric had originally paid for it despite the fact that his name was indeed embroidered onto the leather seats, engraved on every surface and printed on all the soft fabrics of the roof liner and floor mats. The owner of the specialised supercar manufacturer had told me it was a private joke between Eric and himself, they were old friends. Apparently he was becoming concerned with Eric's Americanisation and decided to truss up his order in accordance. Rich boys made extremely expensive jokes.

His laughter was lost as the engine drowned it and any other sound out. That was why I loved this car, it shut people out and as a telepath that was a rare treat. In this car no one's thoughts could reach me and it was bliss. It was even successful in alleviating me of my own troubling thoughts as the empty highways opened up to my insistent feet.

When I had my fill after a good 80 miles I pulled over to allow Alcide to catch up and let Eric have a go at the engineering dream. With nothing clouding my mind or his I pulled at his leather jacket as soon as our seatbelts were disengaged. My lips crashed into his and without hesitance his mouth opened to mine. His fangs made their presence known once more and at the realisation I felt him pull away in hesitance. I forced him to stay, determined this was another battle I refused to lose to him. I was on a winning streak even if I did play dirty by encircling one fang with my tongue. He stalled his resistance and fought my tongue with his instead.

Contact sports had always been a struggle for me but this was one in which I happily pleaded defeat. The silence of his mind and touch was unparalleled. The Koenigsegg had nothing on the man whose name was written all over it.

From that moment I only ever wanted one man's name to leave my lips.

So I breathed out, "Eric."

…

…

…

**A/N: Apologies for the drunken disorder last Tuesday with the posting of the wrong chapter. Thanks again to Sky for alerting me so quickly. **

**So we'll be back exactly from this point with EPOV next Tuesday.**


	7. Chapter 7 - I am my Own

Chapter 7 – I am my own

**EPOV**

Sookie was a speed demon behind the wheel and the sensation of her taking control of my beloved dream car was far more exciting than I ever imagined. I never thought I would allow anyone other than myself to drive this specific vehicle. I had been searching fruitlessly for a car from this same limited release as soon as my Sanguine money came in. Now I knew I would have to be sweet talking Sookie out of the one that had my name written all over it. I'd happily buy her a matching new one with _her_ name all over it but I knew she wasn't going down without a fight. She was as enamoured with this piece of machinery as I was, despite her denial of it. Thankfully we were evenly matched in determination when it came to combat.

It seemed that was what we were best at. Whether it be battling with our tongues or our words and fuck if it didn't make me hard. Regretfully that would have to wait after the slip of my fangs tonight. I knew I had to take it slow. I wasn't ready for that yet with Sookie and despite her aggressive assault of my lips I doubted she was either.

She was no anonymous donor or random woman of my past. I couldn't bear it if I hurt her in the process of my excitement. She nursed my wounds like no other but I couldn't stand to see any harm come to her. As civil as we Sanguinges looked, there were beasts inside of us and the mere sensation of her blood had brought that out full force.

I had learned something new about Sookie Stackhouse tonight. She didn't shy away when I did. Not that she actively sought out danger but fear never strapped her down unnecessarily. What I had interpreted as her defences before were merely a tactical temporary retreat, she never left the battlefield.

Our ever increasing heated kiss was disrupted by the flooding headlights of the Corvette into our private bubble. Sookie smiled dopily at me as she placed the key in my hands and I snuck in a quick taste of her lips before I stood beside her with my otherworldly speed urging her out of her seat. She laughed at what I hoped read as my apparent enthusiasm while she swapped her seat for mine.

The wolf was lost to us in seconds as my feet reached the bottom of the floor. It was far better than I had imagined as the speed coursed through my veins. As much as flying was a revelation to me this sensation still felt unparalleled. My heightened senses only added to it, no drug could compare to this high.

I took us to a secluded spot, one I only ever ventured to alone when things got too complex or I needed to be out of the house. No matter how many square feet it contained, when you want to be away from someone it might as well be the size of a cabin. It would be awhile before her security team had caught up with us, as I had put the supercar well past the legal speed limits and they were surprisingly good at remaining unnoticed. It felt very old world to have these chaperones looking over us but in a sense we needed that and I preferred them over Godric and Pam.

Sookie had managed to get out of the car before I was there to assist her out of the low seat. She didn't sit waiting like a damsel, she had earned the right to carve her own path and I found I liked it. It suited her.

I had thought she had stood in a stasis of time in my absence, in the way she kept everything about my home exactly the same. Her adjustments were small but they were conscious choices just like keeping this specific car. She knew of what I cared for and that made her care but at the same time she discovered things about herself along the way. I had been right back then. Sookie was not meant to be a kept woman she was meant to be her own. That last part I had only realised by witnessing it in the present.

I guided her to an overturned tree trunk that I had sat on so often in the past I was surprised I hadn't worn it down to the exact measurements of my ass. She sat down beside me and I noticed the weariness in her eyes. Beyond that lay fatigue, she hadn't slept the day away like I had. I knew we had to talk about the upcoming visit of Aelia, the mistress of our Sanguine house, but I wanted a night that belonged to me for once. One I could share with her so we could momentarily leave our worries behind.

"What happened between you and the Vette?" Sookie asked as she pulled her cardigan around her tightly. At the sight I draped my leather jacket around her. I had no need for it anymore, it was a strange thing for clothing to be purely decorative. Pam had been talking me into buying a lot of clothes lately. Shopping had been her preoccupation when unable to reach out to Sookie. When she ran out of boutiques to rob blind she had diverted her efforts to me. I didn't mind, the few clothes still left at Sookie's house had been formal wear and the clothes I did possess were simple but would make me stand out among the discerning tastes of the Sanguine.

I found it amusing that Sookie considered my affection for my former car a living relationship but I was coming to understand her world view. Possessions meant more to someone who always had very little of them. I was a poor excuse for warmth but I nudged Sookie into my side regardless before I found an answer I could give. "It reminds me too much of a past that's no longer there."

"It's like that with my Gran's house too," she said with a sigh and I couldn't help but pull her closer. I knew the loss of it was one she had to mourn however ridiculous it seemed to me to grieve a physical object. To her it was like losing her grandmother all over again. "I worked so long and hard to get it back and when I did, I didn't know what to do with it anymore."

"Sounds like us." My thoughts had slipped out of my mouth before I had given pause at their possible impact.

We both fell silent at that realisation. I hoped the parallel stopped with burning flames that led to total destruction and that my inability to face my past in a red little vehicle had made me withdrawn. As if she was reading my thoughts she remarked, "Let's hope we don't crash and burn."

"If we can survive the Koenigsegg we can survive anything," I jested in an attempt to lighten the heavy mood. Her lingering eyes turned to find mine. Despite their dark depths I always found light there, however inexplicable that may be. Now a hint of mirth resided alongside it.

"I think we should get t-shirts made up," she returned. "I survived hurricane Freyda. That's far more impressive than the car."

Her weathering of that heavy storm went beyond that of impressive. Freyda appeared to be the butt of many of her private jokes. It was the only manner Sookie ever possessed in which she acted like the jilted mistress. I suspected it was Pam or her brother's influence to degrade my ex-wife to a joke so she lost her threat.

"You didn't need to move all the assets of the estate around like you have," I said knowing that the subject of my ex needed to be addressed. I didn't want to have Sookie feel like she ever competed with that.

"I know you don't want it back," she said with a little frost to her tone. It was strangely reminiscent of Freyda's usual tenor with me, it didn't suit Sookie one bit. Her heart hardened too much with it.

"No," I replied trying to avert another discussion on that subject matter. "She won't be after it anymore. Freyda is no longer in need of it."

"I hope you got that in writing and notarised," she retorted with the same ice. I didn't think there was a side to Sookie that I didn't like but this was one. It pained me to know my actions had given birth to that.

"I don't need to," I replied keeping my tone level and soft. "We have an understanding, our final parting was amicable."

The look on Sookie's face was incredulous and _that_ was incredible to see. Very little ever cracked her pristine façade, Pam had told me it was a by-product of her telepathy. She had needed to develop an incredible poker face not to show her reactions to the inner thoughts of others.

"The papers said otherwise," she said pointedly.

"And everything they've ever written about you is the absolute truth," I remarked at which she gave a defeated sigh. I knew the press hadn't been kind about her until recent years when she became the generous philanthropist. "It was all PR fed by the AVL and Freyda's publicist. It's why the no contact order was in place."

"So they all could forget I was supposed to be the interfering mistress." Her fingers dug deep into the flesh of her skin just above her knees. The face revealed nothing of her distaste of it all but that movement told me everything.

"No," I said in explanation. "The AVL wanted you to play along as the…" I paused searching for a term that wasn't as damning but there wasn't one, "my former mistress. They wanted me to exchange the relinquishing of my estate for your compliance."

Her face of anger was very similar to my own when Nan Flanagan had informed me of her 'brilliant' strategy. Thankfully Godric had backed me up and she was forced to rework her plan, unfortunately it came with the no contact order. I believed it in part to be a punishment for my refusal to pull Sookie in as an accomplice to her publicizing scheme. Star crossed lovers caught across the ages was a story Nan Flanagan couldn't resist to spin.

"Freyda willingly agreed?" she asked as if it were a complete impossibility. I am sure with the Freyda Sookie had dealt with it certainly would have seemed exactly that. "Did you do some sordid deal with her too?"

"No." My head shook in accordance with the statement to underline the fact. I needed Sookie to understand Freyda was no longer of any threat to her or to us. Legally or emotionally. "She finally got what she wanted, and it wasn't with me. She never fought for the money Sookie, she fought to be recognised as the love of my life. When I was dead and alive."

"She wasn't?" Sookie asked, it was meant to be a statement but it came out as a question.

"Only you," I whispered loud enough for her to hear and I felt the warmth that was at my side push in closer till nothing was left to separate us. I wasn't ready to repeat those three magic words again till I knew for certain that she was ready to reciprocate. In this moment Sookie didn't need to hear them to believe I held them solely for her.

"She magically accepted this because you told her so?" Sookie questioned with that same incredulous tone. It didn't surprise me she had a hard time imagining Freyda as she was now. I had a hard time accepting that change in her too but I was glad to see it.

"No," I said with a badly withheld chuckle. "She found someone else to love and he loves her back. They're expecting their first child in a couple of months."

"Sten," Sookie gasped with realisation and I gave affirmation of her deduction. "I couldn't understand the language in his mind but it had such gentle intent. It reminded me of how you thought of me all those years ago. I can't believe the ice queen found someone to help her defrost."

I couldn't help but laugh as Sookie's nickname for Freyda had been my programmed name for her number in my cell phone for years. When I informed Sookie of this she already knew this, my personal assistant had run her through all the contacts and explained who the moniker had belonged to.

"You're awfully Zen about the woman who tried to make you permanently dead," Sookie remarked with a tone that resembled one much closer to her own. It was melodic and soothing to me, the Southern lilt of her speech endeared her and it hid the true force of her magnitude. Hurricane Freyda was scary but to be at the end of Sookie's verbal sword was surely a far more frightening place to be. She knew how to fight dirty, her display in hiding my assets had proven as much. The apple didn't fall far from her godfather's tree.

"I have an eternity but time ahead of me," I offered in explanation. "Why should I waste time holding on to something I have no position to change. We were bad with each other, it doesn't mean we are bad people apart."

"She tried to kill you," Sookie repeated for what seemed my benefit as her blank face only produced an accelerated blink.

"Luckily she didn't succeed," I returned with a smirk. "I'm sure I would be decidedly less Zen about it then. She apologised and admitted she was wrong, she regretted it. We can both move on now."

Sookie sat quietly as she seemed to reassert everything she knew of Freyda. Despite her telepathy I knew I had shed a different light on her and from her body I could sense a certain amount of weight she carried lifted with the realisation of who Freyda was in the present.

"You held on to me," she whispered softly. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears as she searched out my own once more. The penetrating gaze made it feel as if she was actively seeking out the thoughts that resided in my mind. As if the words I was about to speak could not be trusted. "Why?"

"You," I said gently, in an attempt to avert the tears that were threatening to spill. "I wanted to keep."

It was no use what I said, they fell regardless. Her fresh face glistened in the limited light of the waning moon. I kissed the beads of moisture away from her face even though I knew they had nothing to do with sadness. I still didn't like seeing them there.

"I don't want to be a vampire," she strangled out with her gaze averted to the forest floor. "I don't have an eternity of time ahead of me."

I always had a difficult time accepting this part of my new existence. I didn't want her to be what I was either. She was alive and that is how she was supposed to be, it had terrified me when she spoke of using my former grave as her own one day. Were we both human I would have accepted it was a fate we shared collectively. My fingers grazed in urging at the underside of her chin so I could see her eyes once more.

"The darkness is not a place for you," I clarified to her. She was a great big beaming light that had served as my guide in the darkest corners of my expunged mind. There was nothing in me that would want to extinguish that. "We have now and many tomorrows. If you would accept my blood you would last longer than most."

The magic that sustained us was like a youth elixir to the human system. It would never make them immortal without a turning but it had kept companions around for years beyond anything capable by modern science today. The Sanguines guarded the blood with great reverence only to be dispensed to chosen ones, execution was given to those who shared it without consent of their familial line. It was why the permission to court Sookie held such great importance. I knew the blood of my direct line was stronger than most, there was two millennia between Godric and myself, its potency was barely diluted.

"You wish me to take your blood?" she asked with a tone that revealed she understood all too well the importance of it. A thought occurred to me that perhaps Pam had given her an infusion of blood once considering that age had barely worn Sookie down. I quickly disregarded the thought as I would have sensed it inside her, however faint it was, the blood of our line would always find itself in others. I had first experienced it when I met Aelia's human companion, it was similar to the connection I felt in Pam but not as strong.

"I wonder how long it's going to take you to accept there is nothing I wouldn't wish to share with you." Acceptance was a slow process with Sookie and luckily I had all the time in the world I just hoped she caught on soon enough. She nodded in understanding until I felt her hand snake into my pocket as she pulled the heavy key from my possession.

"Except the Koenigsegg," she smirked triumphantly with a perfect pronunciation of the Swedish brand. My hand clasped over her thieving one in retaliation. The threat was idle, I could crush her hand with a mere squeeze and have the key back before she could blink but that strength would never be used against her. All I would ever be able to do was caress her with the lightest of touches.

"Except the Koenigsegg," I admitted in defeat as her hand slipped from my loose grip. Where I had expected her to bolt to the driver's seat she surprised me by turning over my large hand and placing the key firmly inside it. "Now tell me the real reason what's wrong with the Corvette."

"It reminds me of the man I used to be," I sighed baring the incarnation of my former self. "The one who chased skirts to piss off his wife. It wasn't me but I acted like him anyway."

"You were never that man back then," she said to me as she tucked away a stray piece of hair from my forehead, a lack of toiletries at Sookie's house left it slightly unkempt. "I read it in your mind, everyone but Freyda understood. Love wasn't something you gave away as easily as everything else. My bank accounts stand testament to that."

Sookie knew every intricate detail of my past, if she hadn't read about my philandering in my mind she would have read about it in the media or been confronted with it in court. What I regretted most was that she had been lumped in among those women. I had made every concerted effort for her not to be. While the rest of the world might still regard her as such I knew the truth as well as she. She stood miles apart on her own.

**A/N: A little announcement: I'll be off on holiday for the next couple of weeks to a place where Wi-Fi will be shoddy at best. I'll see what I can do but it may happen that a week passes without an update or that it happens on a different day. **_**It's Already Gone**_** is the only story that will continue as scheduled seeing that it coincides with the show. For those impatient ones among you I suggest to read/catch up with another one of my stories while I'm gone or make sacrifices to the Wi-Fi gods and pray for good reception. I'll be back at work September 1****st**** so unless I catch Hep-V regular scheduling will commence from that point onwards. **


	8. Chapter 8 - Humlebi

Chapter 8 – Humlebi

**PPOV**

I always knew she was special but I never anticipated my closest confidant was a royal princess of the Fae. It was Shahbaz's lord commander, Afshin, who informed me of that fact. He was old enough to remember the scent that drew us all to her presence. Godric and I now fully understood Aelia's interest in Sookie but it would only be from her lips that we were to understand how our Grandest Sire* knew of her. Sookie's telepathy was of no importance to her, the interest lay with the faery kind. Eric's defence of the little were turned out to be righteous after all.

The Empress herself was gracing us all with her presence because of it. Aelia possessed no physical lands to rule herself but she reigned over the kings and queens who were direct descendants of the Aurelie line. We would be fools to think her unexpected presence was related solely to the sudden terrorist attacks.

This was the first time that I ever saw Godric hold some concern to his stoic façade. I held the same disquiet as he. Their wedding was already determined as far as our house was concerned. Their shaky foundations were going to be put to the test. Eric barely escaped one arranged marriage and Sookie was never one to be rushed, yet the church bells seemed to already be ringing with anticipation.

Sookie could lie like the best of us, she had all the necessary skills, but I knew the girl that hid behind the mask. She _could_ was more capable than most but she wouldn't. Not with me, I knew that much. Sookie was as unaware of her royal status as we all had been. She had asked me once if I knew what she was, it had been the first time her defences had ever slipped with me. The telepath was a talented actress but that couldn't be faked.

Afshin informed me the Fae were not as extinct as claimed to be, they had retreated to their own realm but it was far from a peaceful existence there. He assumed Sookie was hidden for security reasons. My maker had once suggested that the magic that animated us was connected to that of the Fae. At the time it had all sounded like fairy tales to me, only the truly ancient ever had credible knowledge of their kind. Only now did those lessons begin to resurface with renewed importance.

My royal estate stood in better conditions than I had anticipated. Repairs were already on their way and I reluctantly made the call to Sophie-Anne Leclerq, who held seat in New Orleans. I would be in need of her eldest child André. Sophie-Anne is a Sanguine baronetess from a lesser house, their blood line is too diluted to hold any true strength. She has yet to turn a true Sanguine but it has hardly deterred her from trying. Her success rate is more miss than hit, I was forced to execute her rampant child Waldo a few years back.

Her eldest André was similarly unstable but was far too devoted to Sophie-Anne to stray too far off the leash. He excelled at extracting sensitive information with methods I rather not acknowledge publicly. So far the three caught perpetrators had withstood the usual scrutiny of my interrogators. Compton had also yet to confess a thing since being arrested in a neighbouring kingdom. I knew Godric would do a better job than André ever could but I also knew such tasks weighed heavy on his conscience. I would travel other available paths before I would resort to ask for his assistance.

Unfortunately as everything was with Sophie-Anne, her assistance would come at a steep price. We would be hosting her and her entourage of children by dawn, and a dinner in her honour would be hosted the next night. She was a social climber even though she probably reached the pinnacle of any station she could hope to have ambitions for. Preparations were already on their way for Aelia's arrival so it would be no bother, although it would require separate tables. Aelia would not deign to sit with Impurus at the table, we would be lucky if she bit her tongue with their mere presence in the banquet hall. Sookie's attendance would hopefully keep her civil until we figure out the full extent of the Empress' intentions.

Sookie's newly discovered lineage would otherwise make her the highest attending guest earning her a place between Aelia and myself. She will, however, be attending as Eric's guest, for now her status will remain unknown, especially in the company of the likes of Sophie-Anne.

While I continued to wrack my brain over the seating chart I felt the tentative touch of Godric's smaller hand resting over my own. As Sanguines we hardly ever touch as a rule but it was a gesture of comfort from our joint times where our stations often lay forgotten. I rewarded my uncle with an appreciative smile. As youthful as his spirit might sometimes be, he understands the weight of duty like no other. He shuffled around a few of the names and I was finally able to release a sigh of relief as he seated each individual in perfect accordance.

"Sophie-Anne will rest in the former slave quarters?" Godric asked merely in confirmation of his assumptions. I simply nodded as the energy of the day had wasted away at me. I will assuredly need to take a live donor before the impending arrivals. While I would love to indulge in the spoils that come with it, I have nor the energy or the time. Sophie-Anne will feel assuredly snubbed by my second rate offering of accommodations but Aelia's arrival will surely awaken her up lofty ambitions in favour of complaints. It's going to be a trying few nights.

"Will you feed with me?" I requested of Godric as I handed off the finalised plans to my social secretary. Our evening's most pressing obligations were done, even though the night is still young. My queendom is now firmly in control by the Guards of Anûšiya as the Impurus are held under curfew. I adjusted the order to include all of the Sanguine even though this will assuredly cause me to lose some of their support. I however refuse to abide by their preferred treatment when one of them may have aided the attackers on my reign.

"We're not draining a bitch together," I exhaled with exasperation as the only answer to my former question was a hesitant gaze. I knew his appetite for fresh blood had resurfaced some after Sookie forced him to drink with her in celebration of the return of her former home. "It is just a feed. Nothing more."

When I was a mere fledgling it had been Godric who had finally managed to curb my voracious appetites where my own maker had tried and failed. Only under command would I be able to restrain myself but my maker knew that was not a solution for the rest of my existence. I had petulantly defied Godric at first, when each of my life lessons had started. He persevered regardless and taught me to compartmentalise the necessities of life. No longer was everything in my newfound existence a string of heightened sensations. With Godric I finally learned to settle in myself without the demanding obligations of the outside world. These days I felt his own restraint was pushing him further in the opposite direction of where I once started.

He had always taught me to walk the middle ground while knowing all the views from the sides, that's what had kept his existence intact. Godric's position was an admirable one, he had manoeuvred himself with such conduct that he held dominion over his choices better than most in our house. The obligations he owed were minimal but from Aelia's announcement earlier this night we both knew that siring Eric had caused Godric to lose some of his cherished independence. There was no doubt in my mind that my uncle would hover especially close, like a helicopter mom, with Eric whenever in the public arena of the Sanguines. He would not be relinquishing his maker's right as easily as his own maker had, despite the possible persistence of the powers that rule us.

"Very well," Godric agreed moments before a knock on the door announced the arrival of the donor. It wasn't the momentous occasion it should have been. We simply sat either side of the all too eager donor sucking at her frail wrists. Her advances were offensive and she would be relieved of her duties the moment we were through. Aelia would have a fit if she were presented with a desperate offering such as this one. As my energies replenished the gravity of the situation was beginning to settle in and it never failed to go unnoticed with Godric. His gentle caress was there once more and like that first time so long ago I stopped fighting what I couldn't control.

"Containment," I spoke remembering the lesson Godric had taught me then. Pieces were always much easier to swallow than the whole. "We can only fall apart in parts."

"You still remember your lessons," he returned with a slight chuckle.

"Unfortunately I remember them all," I retorted with an exaggerated roll of my eyes. Not all had been such gentle lessons as this one. Godric had been the only other person besides my maker that was able to strip me to my essential core. It wasn't always a pretty sight but it had been necessary, with him I could bare all. I wouldn't be who I was now without him. "Thank you."

My head rested on his shoulder as he carried the share of my burden and I carried some of his. He would do all for Eric where I would do the same for Sookie. "It's not easy having someone I care for in my life."

"That was always the toughest lesson I had to teach you," my uncle said soothingly. It was a tone of voice that I had only heard from him on rare occasion, when there was little of me to shield myself. "It has taken you long to appreciate its full extent."

"How are you handling a lesson of your own?" I pondered aloud. We had not ever spoken of why he had turned Eric. Knowing Godric it was a decision not made lightly, it had broken a strong conviction within him.

"I think I have indulged him more than I should."

"I hear it's always like that with the firstborn," I said with a faint smile. It had been the same between my maker and myself. There were no limits to my desires only when my maker realised the mistake, was it rectified with the aid of Godric. "You should practice what you preach."

"No," he replied stoically. "There was nothing left to take from him. He retained no memories of his former life, it would have been cruel."

Now it was my turn to soothe his hand with mine. Our lack of touch in our daily life made the sensation of it all the more heightened. "You were never cruel uncle," I told him with earnest eyes. He once told me I never failed to tell the truth with my stare so as unwilling as he was to hear it he accepted the words I spoke.

"I have been cruel before you," Godric said with a silent sigh.

"We have all been cruel when it was called for," I tried in appeasement. "I have even seen Sookie be cruel." With that I managed to carve out a small smile on his pale face.

"I fear she is being cruel to Eric as we speak," he said with mild amusement. Undoubtedly the two were having far more of an exhilarating time than the exhausted sight of the two of us. "His emotions refuse to settle on any but one."

"That is merely the effect she has on people," I returned knowing those sensations all too well as my own. "Sookie brightens where one thinks there is no room for light. She is unlike any other I have met. And I have met far too many."

We remained silent as there was no need to dispute my claim. I knew Godric had taken to her from the moment his eyes rested on her agitated form, I had mistaken it for attraction at the time. I should have known better, Sookie offered something that little are willing to give without prejudice. Sympathy. I have found Godric is completely unused to its presence but I see it pacifies some of the inflicted wounds he carries as his own.

oOoOoOo

Sophie-Anne arrived sooner than expected, her invitation to court had her on her feet quicker than her reluctant demeanour on the phone suggested. I tolerated her mostly but her sycophant tendencies grated me more than usual this evening. Their rooms in the old slave quarters were appropriate to her station but I had better ones to offer, the mere mention of Aelia's impending arrival had her suitably excited. Thankfully she had left the freakish twins at home and arrived with merely André by her side. I left them to the capable hands of my household staff as soon as it was polite to do so and retreated to my own private quarters just as the sun started to rise.

It was quiet and lonesome, like it always was. For once I found I could appreciate that silence and isolation. There was no doubt in my mind this was merely the calm before the storm. Life swung in a pendulum like that, all could be still and the next moment chaos erupts. I raked through the inventory of my closets appropriating the necessary outfits for the upcoming night. Sookie would have to dress herself without my aid for once but I was assured she would choose well.

The feel of the luxurious fabrics trailing through my hands brought comfort I rarely found elsewhere. Clothes always made sense to me, they moved with seasons and time even when I didn't. It brought an order to my eternal existence like nothing else and catalogued it at the same time. Blood was fickle, a dress always fitted me the same. The soles of my shoes displayed the wear on my life where my body never would. Piece by piece they made me whole.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," the familiar voice of the man who had aided me through the testing day and night spoke pulling me from my trance. It reminded me of my maker who used to read Shakespeare to me by candlelight.

"And what of your excuse," I mused as I continued to finger the bouclé fabric of a pantsuit. "You avoid your day rest to simply taunt mine."

"I need no crown to lie uneasy," he returned with a small prod. Godric removed the hanger from my hands and hung it back in its place. His hand cupped the side of my face and I couldn't help but lean in to its ease. "Shall we lie together for old times' sake?"

"Let's," I agreed and followed him out to my bed chamber. We slipped under the covers in our night clothes and we found our familiar embrace of comfort. I had slept with Godric many times like this, especially after a particularly tough lesson soothing us both like no other. It had never been sexual between him and I, yet it was far more intimate.

He kissed the crown of my head just like he always did and followed with, "Goodnight, princess." I was a queen now but I felt like the young Sanguine princess I had been the last time he held me like this.

"Sweet dreams," I whispered closely to his chest as I continued our old routine.

"Only if you are there as well," he finished, at which we both laid our eyes to rest. It was restorative to us both as it always had been. I always thought our aversion to touch had more to do with restraint than disgust. It could be addictive and in some aspects it had been like that with my maker. Apart or together it had never made sense.

oOoOoOo

We arrived at the private air field promptly on time. Since the attacks my security detail had grown exponentially, they did little to ease my mind. I couldn't fathom what had motivated the targeting of my person. I was considered a fair ruler, there were reigns far less generous to the impure than mine. Yet my concern lay with the blonde telepath that arrived at the hands of my latest cousin.

She wore a dress I had made her buy but she had since refused to wear. It was conservative in shape with its weighty woollen and silk fabric but the deep red colour and slight shine called to an attention Sookie had always avoided. By the way Eric's eyes blazed in appreciation, I knew it was at his insistence she wore this particular dress. It was the first time I ever saw her wear something like that with a quiet confidence. _That_ suited her better than the dress.

They both basked in an afterglow of contentment as if still both in post coital bliss. I didn't need to scent her to know they had slept as innocently as Godric and I. Like proud parents we beamed at the couple in approach. They looked like the golden couple they deserved to be, but I couldn't help but fear that soon a layer of dust will taint their sheen. I committed this moment to memory for times ahead would seek to test their resolve.

Eric gave Sookie a knowing smile when Godric complimented her on the dress. She had already received my approval from a mere look we had shared while we continued to wait for the airline crew to unleash the staircase to the private jet.

The squadron of guards exited first as it came to reveal Aelia's distinguished form. She had a stature and face made for the ages with the darkest brown hair that shone black. She was the image of symmetrical beauty with a body of sin. It was an instrument she had honed finely to divert attentions of her true talents of manipulation. For centuries many had assumed she had been turned for her looks, it had been the least impressive quality as far as her maker was concerned. As striking as her presence always is, it wasn't Aelia that held my eyes locked to the entrance of the plane.

If I had a functioning heart it would have stopped as my blood inside me roared to a heated boil. Within seconds Kristian Holstein-Sonderburg, Duke of Ærø, stood in front of me once more. Every sensation in my body buzzed to life as he whispered his customary greeting in my ears, "Glad to have found you once more, min lille humlebi."*

My maker. He had arrived.

**A/N: Thanks to whoever made sacrifices to the WiFi gods, it is currently holding strong. I hope it was a pesky maenad or the like and not cute kittens or puppies. I don't think my conscience can condone that… what I can condone… Barf Bill! I have stolen several air sickness bags from the plane I was on last night in preparations for next week's episode…**

**For those of you who enjoy that sort of thing there is a picture of Sookie's dress at the end of this chapter on my blog: .com . I have also put up character banners for Aelia and Kristian (I am very curious what you all think of my casting of Pam's maker because if AS had never been born this would probably have been my pick to play the Viking).**

**The reference page has also been updated with some newly introduced terms and an adjustment had been made to the family tree. Direct link is in my profile (new character banners can also be found here).**

***Grandest Sire: The eldest Sanguine of the blood line. Aelia carries the title of Empress because descendants of her line carry royal titles with territories. All the eldest of bloodlines carry the title Grandest Sire but they are not all Emperors or Empresses.**

***min lille humlebi: is Danish for my little bumblebee, which is Kristian's pet name for Pam. As mentioned by Godric in the first chapter the family gift of flight is lost on Pam and her trajectories are more akin to a flight of a bumblebee. **

**I am still officially on holidays so updates will come when they come. I am sticking to the order in which I usually release them so Galatea's Descent will be the next to receive an update just don't ask me when...**

**Shakespeare's quote _'Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown'_ is from Henry IV. Act 3 scene 1. W. Shakespeare**


	9. Chapter 9 - Ferocity

_She wore a dress I had made her buy but she had since refused to wear. It was conservative in shape with its weighty woollen and silk fabric but the deep red colour and slight shine called to an attention Sookie had always avoided. By the way Eric's eyes blazed in appreciation, I knew it was at his insistence she wore this particular dress. It was the first time I ever saw her wear something like that with a quiet confidence. That suited her better than the dress._

_They both basked in an afterglow of contentment as if still both in post coital bliss. I didn't need to scent her to know they had slept as innocently as Godric and I. Like proud parents we beamed at the couple in approach. They looked like the golden couple they deserved to be, but I couldn't help but fear that soon a layer of dust will taint their sheen. I committed this moment to memory for times ahead would seek to test their resolve._

_Eric gave Sookie a knowing smile when Godric complimented her on the dress. She had already received my approval from a mere look we had shared while we continued to wait for the airline crew to unleash the staircase to the private jet. _

_The squadron of guards exited first as it came to reveal Aelia's distinguished form. She had a stature and face made for the ages with the darkest brown hair that shone black. She was the image of symmetrical beauty with a body of sin. It was an instrument she had honed finely to divert attentions of her true talents of manipulation. For centuries many had assumed she had been turned for her looks, it had been the least impressive quality as far as her maker was concerned. As striking as her presence always is, it wasn't Aelia that held my eyes locked to the entrance of the plane._

_If I had a functioning heart it would have stopped as my blood inside me roared to a heated boil. Within seconds Kristian Holstein-Sonderburg, Duke of Ærø, stood in front of me once more. Every sensation in my body buzzed to life as he whispered his customary greeting in my ears, "Glad to have found you once more, min lille humlebi."_

_My maker. He had arrived._

**Chapter 9 – Ferocity**

**SPOV**

Pam and I had spent many nights talking of the man that haunted my past and determined my present. Yet she never spoken to me of the man who did the same to her. I only knew his name to be Kristian and there was no doubt in my mind that this was him. They looked upon each other like old lovers and there would only be one male that fit that description in relation to Pam. Whether he was here for support or reprimand, I knew it to make no difference to Pam. The slight elation in her face spoke volumes, she felt safer than she had in days.

Their foreheads rested on each other's as they drew in the scent and feel of one another. Pam was unusually mute as his thumbs caressed her cheeks. A chaste kiss was placed upon her lips which carried both their smiles. "My own heart's root," she whispered back in greeting as we watched the frost in her character thaw. Our witness to their quiet reunion was only interrupted by the arrival of Aelia who seemed to have moved at a pace that stood in defiance of her preternatural speed.

The woman was stunning, there could be no other word for it and her dark penetrating eyes seemed to only stand in attention to me. I bowed in accompaniment with the others in the manner that I had seen many others do for Pam these past few nights. Eric held me impossibly close to his side as Aelia's inquisitive stare refused to relinquish from my form. It wasn't as if I was being graded like a piece of meat. She was appraising me as if counting my worth. It was a look I had encountered many times since becoming custodian of a vast fortune but I knew for certain this wasn't an assessment of the state of my finances.

"Northman," she greeted with warmth I had yet to see expressed so easily amongst the Sanguine. As Alfa of the bloodline she was probably afforded more liberties than most. There was a maternal edge to her lilt that was almost hypnotic in her soothing. "This must be your Sookie."

"A pleasure to meet you, your Grace," I greeted formally. Her dark eyes had yet to leave mine alone, if there were any distance left between Eric and myself I would have taken it in that moment. Her smile was wide as she only momentarily glanced Eric's way, it appeared I wasn't the only thing that was standing under her continual scrutiny. I was just the one who received the most overt form of it.

"Call me Aelia," she returned kindly as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. The privilege of allowing me to address her by her first name was not lost on me. I almost forgot to breathe as her finger continued to trace from my temple down to my cheek. "We are all but family."

It would have been impossible not to notice the stiffening of Eric at her words despite the genteel tone in which they had been spoken. I had been through this routine often enough with those who had only ever known a life of riches and liked to appear informal and down to earth with the 'common folk'. Those of the silver spoon persuasion never failed to acknowledge you were a silver plated version at best intentionally or not. No matter how much one tried to empathise they would never understand, in contrast I knew both sides of the coin of poverty and riches where they probably never would. That was a wealth they would never get to experience. Even if all their fortunes were lost, unfounded stature can linger longer than one would expect. In the end money buys very little but that is a lesson those in abundance of it hardly ever come to understand.

"I insist you call me Sookie then," I said in a mirror tone to her voice. Her satisfied smile told me I had placated her enough and her gaze finally fell towards Godric. They spoke in ancient tongue as he led her to the procession of vehicles awaiting us. Eric and I followed at a distance as we made our way back to the Koenigsegg we arrived in. His hand covered mine as I reached for the door handle, pleading eyes met my questioning look. As the engines of the other cars roared to life we stood waiting till they departed out of sight.

His lips sought out mine and I happily invited him in. His hands roamed down the expanse of my backside as if to assure him I was still here. "She wants you," Eric whispered against my lips as I sought out the crisp air to replenish my lungs as his lips continued to trace new patches of skin. Worry was written all over his face and I couldn't help but caress the drawn lines of his face softly in attempt to smooth out the signs of distress that had emerged.

"I know," I returned as I placed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth reaching up on the tips of my toes. He steadied me as my heels found the ground again as our eyes were yet to leave each other alone after the invasion of Aelia on both sets. "She can pay like everyone else. Sookie Stackhouse, telepath for hire."

The frowns on his face only dug deeper with concern. He untucked the hair Aelia had displaced, allowing the soft strand to frame my face once more. I gave him an appreciative smile but he couldn't return it. "She considers you hers by extension of me," he sighed.

"Will she harm me?" I asked even though I was pretty certain she wouldn't. He shook his head confirming my suspicion. "Then let's concern ourselves with the repercussions later." Eric murmured some sort of acquiescence in reply but he refused to let me go for some time. There were worse positions to find oneself in so I didn't resist the embrace.

Perhaps I was being foolish and naïve in my convictions of others but my instinct had never led me astray. I waited for a man everyone thought was dead but here he stood holding me in his arms. I could afford myself a little bit of faith in what was to come.

We settled into the car that was now no longer destined to be a museum piece with the amount of use it was receiving. Eric reluctantly let me go knowing we couldn't remain absent for much longer. I straightened out the creases that were intending to stay on my dress before fastening in for what I assumed was another high octane fuelled ride. Instead he drove like a senior citizen and rather than addressing it, knowing he was simply procrastinating, I let my mind wander to Pam.

"Do you know Kristian well?" I asked Eric as they had exchanged greetings of familiarity. His attention was preoccupied with other thoughts so I had to ask him again before he finally replied. Thankfully he was not distracted enough for it to impact his driving.

"Ærø trained me for combat," Eric replied pronouncing the last name in his Swedish tongue. When I asked if he was a fellow Swede he informed me Kristian had been the duke of an island in Denmark in his human days. There was a slight resemblance in looks that designated their shared Nordic heritage but Eric's spoke much more of this era than Kristian's did. The scruff of his beard and his aquiline nose held a masculine character that was softened by the glint in his eyes and the smile he had held for Pam.

"Did he ever speak of Pam?" I pondered aloud as I was still digesting the unusual sight of my friend earlier that night. I had always suspected Pam sought relationships with women because no man would measure up to the one she shared with her maker. Witnessing the electricity that warred between them seemed to prove just that. It had also revealed a side of Pam that I had never encountered before, she had let her guard down with me in private often enough but I had never seen this softness reside in her.

"In passing," Eric replied as we were nearing the gates to Pam's vast estate. "I didn't know their relationship was so intimate."

When the engine came to a standstill Eric made no move to leave the confines of the car. Again he didn't respond to me when I called out his name. He only reacted when I grabbed his hand in mine. "Where did you go?"

He didn't answer me with words but rather a swell that touched upon my lips. It wasn't unwelcome but this kiss reeked of desperation and insecurity. Not in himself but rather the situation.

"Hey," I whispered soothingly as he leaned his head into the palm of my hand seeking the comfort I was offering there. We were walking into the unknown but I had chartered that ground often enough in the past decade by myself. There was little left that would scare me on my own anymore, Eric was merely an unparalleled strength beside me that added to that. "Things are never going to be simple between us and that's ok. Don't let others complicate it further."

He nodded accepting the validity of my words though it did little to ease his mind. I was appreciative of his concern but I refused to feel any until I found cause for it. Life was too short for that. I swung my legs out of the low riding car and found him waiting by my side. I reached for his arm to bring myself up to my full height and found an appreciative smile on his face.

"I think the only sight of you more beautiful in that dress is you out of it," he leered causing my cheeks to flush in an accompanying shade to the garment he insisted I wear tonight. I was glad to see the playful twinkle return to his blue gaze, and though overt advances like this one usually made me shy away, I simply shook my head in disapproval. The poorly contained smile on my face rendered that gesture completely useless.

"Do you have x-ray vision now?" I teased back hoping he sincerely didn't. His laugh confirmed as much and I was glad to see it return. It reminded me of the time we were both just humans and I would wait on him in the diner. A strange realisation occurred to me how time that had altered our lives in reversal. Things were uncertain but we had remained a constant presence in each other's lives despite the other's absence in it. Now we were constants in an uncertain time. I could only assume we would be better for it if we stuck by each other's side.

I am his as he is mine. It had remained unspoken but it was implied. Without thought I had not denied Aelia's statement that I was his. _We_ just needed to have the conversation, but I knew now was not the time as he ushered me through Pam's home. I had to stifle a laugh as he was unconsciously giving me a tour of the home that I probably knew better than he did. Eric only seemed to realise when one of Pam's staff greeted me familiarly. I was glad to hear no one had gotten hurt in the explosion and by the sound of the hammers I knew it wouldn't be long till Pam's palace was in a pristine state once more.

"I forget sometimes you know this world better than me," he said in apology. I no longer let my amusement hide as I consciously let my features speak for me. Pam had informed me Eric couldn't read my minute facial expressions as well as she or Godric could as his isolation from other Sanguines kept him uneducated on certain fronts. His assessment was probably more accurate than he thought, I indeed knew the way of the Sanguine better than he. Eric had the supernatural skills where I possessed the knowledge of court life in unknowingly assisting Pam all these years and vicariously picking up the traits along the way.

"Between the two of us we'll figure it all out eventually," I returned encouragingly as we continued to stare at a grotesque portrait of Pam. She had told me once it was a gift she was unable to refuse. Now that it was revealed how high her standing truly was among the Sanguine I could better understand that in the present. It made me see the portrait and by extension Pam in a different light.

Her stoic appearance was related to her regal stature, she couldn't be anyone but the person in the portrait to the outside world. Her characteristic snark and disdain that she let run free in my presence was a reaction to the sycophancy she was undoubtedly surrounded by at all other hours.

We were joined by an impure blooded vampire who held the appearance of a teenage boy with the palest of hairs. I had never seen him roam the halls of Pam's estate before and with all the past evenings' events I couldn't help but be suspicious of his presence.

"Our Queen is a real beauty is she not?" he asked breaking into our private conversation. The tone he used made it hard to discern if he was truly flattering Pam or implying the exact opposite. The glee that shone through his eager eyes seemed unrelated to what he was trying to say. It was the look I had seen other Impurus carry whenever they smelled blood in the air. The look of his innocent boyish features combined with what Pam had described as bloodlust was a disconcerting cocktail I wanted nothing to do with.

"Yes," Eric agreed before pulling me closer as if sensing my discomfort with this vampire's presence. "Excuse us."

As we made to move he called after us when our backs had already turned towards him. The words he spoke sent disgust through both our systems. "When you are through with that donor, send her down to me," he had requested of Eric. It was the first time I witnessed a Sanguine in his full force of strength. Eric had left my side in an instant and when I turned round he already had the Impurus pinned against the stone wall snarling with his fangs out. The only other time I had seen them was when he had playfully displayed them or they had accidentally slipped out at my tongue's insistence. Now I finally saw the danger those incisors truly possessed.

"She is no donor," Eric seethed out to the Impurus beneath him that struggled in his strain. "Apologise. NOW!" The bark in his voice was so menacing it almost had me offering the demanded words. A strangled sorry came out before Eric released him at which he fell into a puddle of limbs upon the floor. I pulled my eyes away from the scene as the fair haired vampire writhed in pain on the shiny marble slabs staining them red. This was a side of Pam's world I never had to face before but it came with Eric's. There was no denying that as civilised as the Sanguine may be, their relations to the Impurus left something to be desired when it came to conflict management.

On instinct I ran. I left the grand hallway as quickly as my heels would allow in search of Pam. I left Eric behind with a look to his face that I had yet to place. It could have been remorse or confusion, regardless I didn't stand there long enough to dissect it. He could have caught up to me with his impressive speed but he didn't, perhaps bloodlust had taken charge of him as well. I knew what I felt and it was fear. Whether of him or for him was something I had yet to determine.

Instead of finding Pam my trajectory was interjected by Aelia. Her impressive silhouette was now covered in a floor length gown in a minimal style. When you were as impressive of beauty as she there was little need for embellishment. The colour was strikingly similar to the dress I wore which paled in comparison to hers now.

She didn't seem the type to compete for the best dressed of the night. Aelia would win that without challenge every time and she was clearly not the type of woman who survived the ages by continually seeking out conflict. The matching colour signified more than that, she was announcing we resided in the same team, her comment that we were all but family repeated in my head. I knew my telepathy to be unique but somehow I suspected this was more than that.

"Sookie," she smiled widely as my heightened breath held me flustered. When I caught it again she had me seated on one of Pam's dainty sofas in the adjoining pastel salon. The bold colour of our dresses were like inflicting wounds to the genteel décor.

"Aelia," I finally managed to breathe out in a return greeting.

"Oxygen is such an interesting substance once you have no need for it," she commented as I sucked it in greedily. Her gaze was less penetrating than before and perhaps I was foolish but I took the warmth in her voice as kindness. Eric, Pam and Godric may be fearful of her intentions but I saw through her just as easily as I had when first meeting Pam. She was a mother protecting her cubs and by extension of Eric I had become one. "What has you exerting yourself so?"

I eyed her warily, she seemed gentle and maternal. Something I had never experienced with my own mother, so I had a hard time placing it as genuine concern. Like my interactions with Eric it pushed me to a place of the unknown, it was scary and exciting at the same time. Pam had been the one I wanted to unload my concerns onto but I allowed Aelia in on the events that had me foolishly running in painful shoes.

"Ferocity is not uncommon in one as young as Eric," she said sagely. Though I knew this consciously, to hear it from someone as ancient as her gave me some peace with the events that occurred. "Especially with the ones he loves. You must allow him to express it or it simply erupts out like that."

I nodded in accordance with her assessment. Eric was a bottler when it came to his emotions. A common characteristic of the cold climate to which he was born to but it ran stronger in him than most. His sister Lovisa had speculated more than once that had Eric expressed his objections to his marriage to Freyda as vocally as he felt them, his parents would not have continued to insist on it. That characterised Eric to me most in his absence, he was the type to suffer in silence so others wouldn't have to share the pain or the burden. If he could he'd carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"You love him, do you not?" Aelia requested with a discerning brow line that I had come to recognise as a trait shared by all the Aurelies. I was quieted by her question, to say I loved him was too strong but it was a path I didn't see myself avoiding. Whatever it was that lay between us it warranted to be explored and I was sure there would be sides to me that Eric would not appreciate. At my continued absence of an answer she continued, "Love is the acceptance of another despite their flaws. You will discover this soon enough."

"I never thought it would happen for me," I replied unsure why Aelia invited me to open up so easily. "For most of my adult life I was convinced no one would be accepting of the flaw I carried. I knew my ability was a gift that had merit but when it came to personal relationships it was more akin to a crippling hurdle."

"What flaw do you speak of my dear?" Aelia asked with confusion. Her scrutiny of my own returned as she raked her intensely dark eyes over me as if looking for a physical sign of it.

"My telepathy," I spoke evenly not bothering to skirt around the cause of her interest in me for any longer.

"How is that a flaw my dear?" she said with misunderstanding. "You are all telepathic."

"Who are all telepathic?" Eric's familiar voice suddenly asked from behind me before I could. I had been so engrossed in my conversation with Aelia I hadn't even sensed the arrival of his signature void. Aelia's face travelled curiously between ours before she answered.

"The Fae of course."

…

…

…

**A/N: The WiFi has been testy again… I was thankful to get Pam's instalment of It's Already Gone up Sunday. Thankfully I managed to get this uploaded today but I am in need of some new sacrifices for the WiFi gods. Suggestions welcome…**

**For those of you who enjoy that sort of thing there is a picture of Sookie and Aelia's dress at the end of this chapter on my blog: .com .**

**As I am still on holiday mode updates will come when they come. The next story to get an update will be Galatea's Descent.**


	10. Chapter 10 - Bloodlines

"_You love him, do you not?" Aelia requested with a discerning brow line that I had come to recognise as a trait shared by all the Aurelies. I was quieted by her question, to say I loved him was too strong but it was a path I didn't see myself avoiding. Whatever it was that lay between us it warranted to be explored and I was sure there would be sides to me that Eric would not appreciate. At my continued absence of an answer she continued, "Love is the acceptance of another despite their flaws. You will discover this soon enough."_

"_I never thought it would happen for me," I replied unsure why Aelia invited me to open up so easily. "For most of my adult life I was convinced no one would be accepting of the flaw I carried. I knew my ability was a gift that had merit but when it came to personal relationships it was more akin to a crippling hurdle."_

"_What flaw do you speak of my dear?" Aelia asked with confusion. Her scrutiny of my own returned as she raked her intensely dark eyes over me as if looking for a physical sign of it. _

"_My telepathy," I spoke evenly not bothering to skirt around the cause of her interest in me for any longer._

"_How is that a flaw my dear?" she said with misunderstanding. "You are all telepathic."_

"_Who are all telepathic?" Eric's familiar voice suddenly asked from behind me before I could. I had been so engrossed in my conversation with Aelia I hadn't even sensed the arrival of his signature void. Aelia's face travelled curiously between ours before she answered._

"_The Fae of course."_

**Chapter 10 – Bloodlines **

**EPOV**

"What are the Fae?" Sookie asked of Aelia, while her eyes seemed to plead to mine for comfort. I sat down beside her feet as the small sofa barely accommodated the two of them. My grandest sire gave me a curious look indicating that it was an unbecoming position for me to sit on the floor. When Sookie reached out for my hand Aelia's discerning look alleviated as our hands locked.

I knew for certain then that whatever her demands would be of us she wouldn't interfere in our personal relationship. However, what she wanted of Sookie was now a mystery to me. Godric had told me some about the Fae but it was no longer fresh in my mind. As far as he was informed they were extinct but then my maker only ever knew one telepath. Sookie was one of many or perhaps the last. Not everything always was as it appeared.

Like the united front Sookie and I were showing in display. She needed me for support now as a part of her mysterious identity was uncovered. I was thankful it was me she sought out, despite the earlier incident. There was, however, no doubt in my mind that when afforded the privacy of just the two of us we would need to discuss my outburst towards the Impurus known as André. His maker had been incensed at his treatment and though there would be no repercussions for me, I knew there were reparations to be made. With Sookie and with André.

"Fairies," I answered when Aelia seemed too distracted to answer Sookie. It seemed Aelia was unaware till now that the source of Sookie's telepathy was a mystery revealed to us both at the same time. I recognised Aelia's calculated look, it was no different to the one she carried when I was first presented to her scrutiny. Her inquisitive gaze had penetrated every single part of my body then as I performed the 'tricks' that were the result of my turning. I only knew Aelia as the encouraging kind person she had been to Sookie tonight but Godric had made it clear to me the woman who held her seat for millennia was one with a heart of metal. Very few were held with affection behind that harness.

Where Godric had been cold and aloof to me, Aelia had always been warm and inviting to me. I didn't know it then on account of the amnesia but she reminded me of my grandmother and her emotional nourishment was something I sought even now. Many men had tried to seek a place in her bed, I never did. She was committed to a human companion that had sat at her side for centuries. Without my memories I lacked the confidence of conquest that I held in my human days. Her beauty was undeniable and it had caught my attention but it had not been that which endeared her to me. Aelia had told me once that those that saw beyond her façade were a rare breed that never failed to disappoint her. I was one of those chosen few.

As a constant source of disappointment to Godric in my fledgling nights her continued confidence in me had given me grounding. I stopped trying to appease my maker's every whim and simply listened to what he asked of me. I held suspicions she had spoken to my maker of it as well, since his reprimands came with praise soon after.

Godric and Pam had soiled my mind with Aelia's intent, she didn't politicise her own family. I knew that and should have trusted in that. I was sure she had plans for Sookie and perhaps myself but it was for the good of the family. Her familial demeanour with Sookie was not an acted front, my panic at the airfield was a phantom Sookie had the insight to recognise. She indeed knew this world far better than me.

"I knew I wasn't normal… but a fairy?" I couldn't help but smile at her stammer. The innocence of her that shone so brightly when we first met all those years ago was revealed in her befuddlement. There sat the girl that had stolen my heart then and continued to hold it now.

"I told you, you were unique," I smiled at her encouragingly. Her face softened with that, it was almost as if she was scared that this final piece of information about her would scare me off. The woman she had grown into in my absence hadn't done so either. She was simply more now and I loved it all. "You're supposed to be extinct."

"I'm the last of my kind?" Sookie asked with a tremble in her voice. I knew loneliness had plagued her for much of her life, it was obvious to me that's where she and Pam had bonded. The thought of her being the sole survivor of a once impressive species had me hurting with her. Now I felt like a shit for making her feel that way.

"On this plane, perhaps," Aelia answered. "The Fae retreated to a realm of their own when the Impurus' numbers rose exponentially. War will do that to our species unfortunately. You have noticed they are especially eager around you."

"Yes," we both replied in synch with the incident with André still fresh on our minds. In truth it hadn't been his demeaning of Sookie to a status as donor that had incensed me. It was his intrusion and his apparent lusting after her and I knew it had unnerved Sookie greatly in the process. His comment was simply the catalyst that set off my rage.

"There is a reason why our house is so discriminating towards their kind," Aelia sneered. It had always been a part of the new order of my life I had trouble coming to terms with. The class system of our species was one I couldn't reconcile with the social democratic principles of the country that raised me. My dearest grandmother was a staunch Socialist that would have had her arrested by McCarthy himself had she resided in my adopted homeland. My handlings in business had always been motivated by fairness and equality for my employees, yet I had no choice but to participate in the debasing of the foul blooded.

"Our house name Aurelie refers to gold as it has been used as a symbol for purity, value, royalty, and particularly roles that combine these properties. In our case it's an homage to colour of the sun since we can withstand its rays," Aelia continued to explain though I could not understand how this pertained to her discrimination of the Impurus. "When I was made we were still called Caelius-Aurelius to designate we were of the heavens, the golden sky. Our houses were once aligned Sookie, it's where our resistance to the sun and gift of flight comes from. In turn the Sky Fae enjoyed our immortality and increased strength in their light.

"Unfortunately the foul blooded lack our restraint when it comes to those with Fae blood. They killed our alliance and it was the remaining houses of Sanguine that failed to join with the houses of Fae that encouraged the breeding of the Impurus. War soon followed and it resulted in the retreat of your kind," Aelia noted with a hint of sadness. "I have been waiting for a very long time for our houses to stand by each other's sides once more. The recent rebellion of the Impurus only informs me of its necessity."

"This is why you consider her family," I observed. Her lack of aging was now explained to me as we apparently both reaped the rewards of our counter bloodlines. "Is she…"

"Immortal?" Aelia finished my question filled with hope. "Like us, you can be killed. Your human component makes you slightly more fragile dear, do not be reckless with yourself," she warned at Sookie who only barely seemed to be able to take in what was being said about her. "But your body will not kill you. It will not deteriorate and you heal better than most."

"I can't speak for a house I know nothing of," Sookie said evenly. "I cannot make an alliance in their name."

"It is not about speaking or documents, my dear dove," Aelia soothed. "It all comes down to the blood. Yours and ours. As our bloodlines continue to combine our collective strengths will increase. We have already noted a change since Eric has fed from you."

"That was but mere drops," I said in confusion.

"It was enough for Ærø to insist he accompany me," Aelia replied with a knowing look that required no explanation. Pam's maker was notorious for refusing to leave his post. Their intimate reunion had only barely surpassed my surprise at his unexpected appearance on the tarmac.

"And here I thought he had come for Pam," Sookie spoke lowly with an accompanying roll of her eyes.

"That too," Aelia chuckled. We were interrupted by the call of the dinner bell halting the continuance of our private conversation further. The implication was clear to me, she sought for us to exchange blood in a bonding ceremony and I assumed Sookie perceptive enough to have caught that too. Her deflection with humour was evidence enough that she was avoiding the weightier end of the dialogue.

I had already initiated talks of her taking my blood but apart from the accidental slip up we had yet to discuss me partaking in hers. As I escorted them both to the dining hall I couldn't help but notice the change in demeanour in Sookie. Her shields were coming up along with a social veneer that I had first observed at the charity banquet when I was reintroduced to the world at large. She was running on autopilot during much of the dinner then and now.

Pam had an impressive chef that applied principles of molecular gastronomy to rare blood types. As delicious as that was, there was little appetite in me after our conversation with Aelia. Across the table I noted Sookie was of similar mind. She avoided meeting my gaze as she made polite conversation with the people seated beside her. I didn't know if she wanted her mind free of our discussion with Aelia or if she was punishing me for my poorly held contained rage with André. Perhaps it was a mixture of both.

I was unfortunately seated next to the irritable maker of that particular Impurus. Her attitude towards me had clearly changed from the moment I entered the dining hall with Sookie and Aelia on my arms. She had been desperately trying to engage my Grandest Sire in conversation since and considered me the vehicle of access. Like Sookie, Aelia had her shields firmly in place. I wondered where I could buy some of my own to ward off Sophie-Anne and her nasal whining.

"It was quite tiresome bypassing all the patrols, your majesty," the red headed vampire tried once more engaging Pam into a conversation. This time, however, there was no polite way for Pam to bow out of a reaction as all other conversations had halted to a stop. There had been other lowly spoken grumbles at the table of Pam's decision to include the Sanguine in the night curfew. It was only out of decorum that it wasn't spoken louder. Our hearing left nothing unsaid. The other invited Sanguine at the table were showing their slight appal at the comment even though the whispers had emanated from them earlier.

"My east wing is not under construction for mere changes in décor," Pam returned evenly. "Preferential treatment is what has inspired the Impurus to attack."

"So you give into their demands?" Sophie-Anne retorted haughtily. If looks could kill then Sophie-Anne would have burst into flames with the anger that resided in Sookie's eyes. Though I was pretty sure Pam held the same emotions, her blank façade revealed nothing of an ire.

"I am merely displaying no one is exempt from suspicion," Pam replied as a flash of sympathy was expressed from Sookie to her. The movement was minute but I caught it as her maker inched his pinkie finger to rest beside hers. The slight agitation visible in Pam subsided with the small surface of contact. "I do not employ the Impurus in my household as you do Sophie-Anne."

"You suspect one of your own?" another Sanguine asked with an affronted manner. He had been one of many that had waggled their tongue earlier in the evening. Assuredly he and the others would continue that same movement after this dinner was done.

"She would not be such a capable queen if she did not rule it out," Aelia said coming to her defence. Her words carried the weight necessary for the disgruntled among them to subside their protestations. "Times are changing and we must move with them or face extinction."

With Aelia's last sentence my eyes locked with Sookie's across the table. It was said for our benefit though it held a different meaning for those at the table. It didn't fail the notice of my maker who sat in close proximity to her. I received a questioning prod through the bond I shared with him but it was hardly an answer that could be spoken aloud. I returned a signal that indicated we would speak of it later. Appeased with that he continued a conversation beside him.

Sookie's eyes had yet to waver from mine in the process, Aelia's request had just become a weight on her shoulders. As much as I would have loved to be able to carry that for her I knew it was her burden to carry on her own. This was the other side to unique, and unfortunately it was the side she was most accompanied with.

I leaned across the table and I repeated the sentence that she had spoken to me in comfort, hoping it would have the same effect for her, "Things are never going to be simple between us and that's ok. Don't let others complicate it further."

Her smile was watery but it was there nonetheless and it didn't speak of sadness. She seemed to heed her own advice and her defences slipped in place again as I stood witness to her transformation. A part of me was sealed along with her, the strength she had borrowed me returned to her.

Thankfully our obligatory presence at dinner was soon over. I was glad I was relinquished from Sophie-Anne's continued blabber about her children as well as the horrendous sight of their photos on her phone that I was forced to see one by one. She really didn't select them on looks or any other reasonable quality I could discern. The sing song in her voice did nothing distract from the annoyance that was her running continual commentary.

It brought me to a new perspective, the existence of these children had left Sookie standing solitary for most of her life, abandoned by the kin they hunted. From the multitude of pictures they only seemed capable of entertaining an overindulged Sanguine. I didn't have much sympathy for Aelia's prejudice but I was beginning to understand it more now.

As I politely left the table at greater haste than most it was Sookie who found me first. She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me wordlessly through a secret passage I had no knowledge existed. We ended up by ourselves in the conservatory that housed Pam's English tea roses. The aromas were alluring yet it did nothing to drown out the scent of her, they seemed simply content to live by each other's side.

"We should talk," Sookie announced as she patted the seat beside her on the large daybed that sat at the edge of the room overlooking the formal gardens of the exterior. I obliged her and was surprised to find her leaning her body into mine when I settled down.

"Aelia or the incident first?" I asked while snaking my arm round her waist pulling her with me to lay on our backs so we could look up to the clear starry sky through the glass ceiling.

"I want to know if there are any others like me," Sookie said as she rested her head on my chest. "I trust Aelia's words but I don't want to find myself making alliances on behalf of people I don't know. If it comes down to the survival of your house my blood has already been promised to Pam in an emergency. I won't retract that agreement."

"You agreed to that under different circumstances," I pointed out as my fingers trailed through the loose ends of her hair. "There is no obligation to abide by it."

Her face turned up towards mine, by the stern set of it I knew her mind was already made up. "Most of my life my net worth has equated the validity of my words Eric," she returned sternly. "It was all I could ever afford."

"Don't let pride be your downfall," I countered and I saw a modicum of acceptance travel across her eyes. She nodded her head as I admitted, "I let it be mine tonight and there was no prize in my conduct. I'm sorry."

"Are you sorry for what you did or that I was a witness to it?" she asked my chest. It was the first time I ever sensed true insecurity in her about me. My actions had shattered an image she had built up from the intricacies of my human mind. My fingers nudged her chin towards mine again. I wanted to look her in the eyes when I answered.

"Both," I said truthfully and conveyed it through every pore of my body. "Officially I owe him no apology but he will have one. I don't approve of his behaviour around you but my reaction was excessive."

She nodded with satisfaction before she answered, "That's all I needed to hear."

Our heads turned collectively to the ceiling of the night sky once more. After the silence lasted longer than I cared for I asked, "What are you thinking?"

"I think we should have sex."

...

…

…

**A/N: I am well aware that's the worse place to stop, so your hate is warranted. Most likely it will continue on in the next instalment but there will be something there probably just not what you wanted… **

**To make up for the lacklustre ending of the TB finale I am utilising the announcement posts for the stories on the blog to write little quick fixes around the 'Thank You' episode. They're proving pretty popular over there so I decided to add them to this site too, they're collected under the name Thanksgiving Fixin's. Anyhow they're uber short and I'll see how far my imagination stretches but there's a couple rummaging around in my head and they take as long to write as my usual announcement posts so it works for me.**


	11. Chapter 11 - You

Chapter 11 – You

**PPOV**

As if no time had passed a hardbound book rested on my bare back and my maker's face rested slightly above my rear as he read to me aloud. His taste in literature had changed since the last time we lay like this. Shakespeare had been traded for Hollinghurst*. One hand turned the pages as the other explored the depths of my folds. It was a torture only the hands of my maker could bring me. Sweet release would be hours away. I didn't care, the journey was worth far more than the destination.

He was the man who introduced me into the pleasure of carnal delights when my body still carried more than the temperature of the room, discarding me of the membrane proclaiming an innocence I never possessed. My skin flushed with heat then as his cool body settled the fever that ran rampant inside of me. Every coupling between us has been chasing the initiation of that one since. Tonight was no different.

He placed a soft kiss on my tail bone as he finished another chapter. The book fell closed, heavy with its own weight. The tip of his nose trailed the sensitised skin of my spine, another kiss was placed at the base of my neck. I whimpered at the consecutive loss of his fingers inside me before I was quieted with his seeking tongue in my mouth. It was a preferential invasion I happily laid siege to.

"I have missed this my humlebi," Kristian mumbled between the soft kisses that embraced the skin of my jaw. I could only agree with affirmative mewls as his body encompassed over mine. His touch was as gentle as it was firm. The appendage that would otherwise offend me on any other man writhed over my backside wetting my appetite. Nothing with him would come this easy and tonight would be no different.

I happily followed where he would lead, the burden of eternal responsibility lying elsewhere for but a few hours. Yet my mind was still digesting the events of the night as he turned our bodies to their sides.

"What do I do Kristian?" I sighed as my maker's caressing hand explored the expanse of my stomach. His teasing fingers hovered over my sex before he pulled the support of his body from mine rolling me onto my back. A smile he only reserved for me graced his face as he looked down into my eyes. I was already getting ready to laugh in anticipation of the answer.

"You open your legs and let me in," he smirked. It was a glorious sight to witness again, it had been too many years between us. I couldn't help but brush away at the long strands of hair that fell over his brow. It was a futile movement, it wasn't long enough to stay put behind his ears without a stiff product. "You don't even have to move."

I hid my amusement in my face as I played along in our amateur dramatic society of two. "You really think I would forget how to do that?" I insinuated with an arched brow. His lips quickly trailed the contours of the delicate hairs pulled in tension in pursuit of the movement.

"I have heard only women grace your fine linens these days," Kristian whispered as his kisses followed around my eye socket and down my cheeks.

"My queendom Kristian," I retorted with an irritation that would never truly be there for my maker.

"Let me take care of you and the rest will care for itself," he soothed with the same gentleness of his fingertips that trailed over the fine hairs of my skin barely touching but sensitising with great intensity. Despite his rugged looks his hands were soft. Swords had been wielded with fine leather gloves and labour had never indented them as human or vampire. They were filled with strength but to me they would always be tender in their exploration. With his weakening of my defences I was no longer able to act and the show we were performing fell away like the curtains of hair framing his face. The hesitation and uncertainty of the moment surrounding us was clearly legible on my face. His deep blue eyes sought out my own as he ascertained what ailed my mind. "You thought I only came to admire the little Fae?"

"You wouldn't be the first," I returned with a weak smile. My eyes had started to water, something they only ever seemed able to do in the presence of this man. Only with him could I let go and release the tension that built up inside me and I had been dangerously close to my breaking point. The impact of the events finally crashed down on me in a relentless wave. I shook with pain and grief as he held me securely encompassed in his arms. I felt like a newborn once more, awake to sensations I could no longer control, my body screaming in every corner of my cognizance. Kristian didn't pacify it with the false sense of comfort he could send through our bond, he let me feel everything as it searched for an outlet.

I screamed at a deafening tone till the chords that defined my vocals expired from use. My silent tears became sobs as I quivered my trembling form in his steady grasp. He rocked me in his arms feeling everything as I felt it. All I could sense from him was his love and admiration for me. Kristian didn't take my pain, he merely shared it. He kissed the tracks of my tears away one by one. I sought his lips to selfishly rest on my own as they shamelessly expressed the need I felt for him. His mouth returned to a smile as the heaviness of the mood was slowly expelled from around us.

"Pamela," he breathed out as we both felt myself returning to a state of calm and a vague contentment. I gave him a full smile in return, one I hid away for years only to be released in return to another. To this other. It was solely held in reserve for the two of us and it was a knowledge we both accepted and held dear.

A gold necklace appeared around my neck with a large diamond pendant that rested between my bare breasts. The metal was cool while my skin was still warmed from his touches. I didn't need to look to know it was flawless and completely abiding to my discerning tastes. I stood up from the bed regardless and walked over to the large mirror in my dressing room.

The dull sheen in my eyes had lifted but they hardly shone as brightly as the brilliant hanging from my neck. It didn't surprise me he remembered my preference of pink gold over the standard yellow. Neither one of us had the ability to forget, our every experience or the other. I looked down while my fingers trailed the fragile chain that scooped down before my own wondering hands were met with another set.

One hand snaked round my waist as the other continued to fondle at my breast, the sensitive nipple cruelly left ignored. My eyes lifted their attention from the sparkling gem that rested near my heart to lock with the man whose gaze was captivated with my reflection.

"Such a pretty thing for my pretty one," he said with a softness that was foreign even to me. The image of the two of us staring back was undeniably one of beauty, one that spoke of eternity where our encounters were always brief. "There are none that compare to you, humlebi."

I knew he meant it, I had yet to catch him caught in a lie. There was no necessity for me to act coy when we both knew I never was and never would be that. "It's beautiful Kristian," I replied warmly as the heat started to grow inside me. His fingers probed once more as he parted my outer lips to reveal the protruding pink glans to our collective reflection. The female anatomy was a sight of splendour we relished in with equal vigour, his hungry gaze easily matched my own.

"It reminded me of this," he said as his other hand joined the fray parting me wider to the mirror. Two free fingers tapped at my clit intermittently at a speed which I only managed to register when I cried out in shock with the sudden invasion of it. His hands held me steady into his strongly built chest as my flailing legs were lifted from the solid ground. I clenched with need as my sex lay splayed out before me. The tip of his erection stood standing firm underneath collecting the natural lubricant as it fell beneath me.

I squeezed my thighs together desperate for the friction he was denying me, crossing my ankles as his hands let up the tight hold he had on me. My arms moved behind me as I hung from his neck as his arm held me suspended in the air by the waist. He rocked his throbbing cock back and forth slowly in the slippery passage created between my thighs. The other hand that had remained free rubbed lazy circles around my clit anchoring me to him as we both observed the closeness of our near joining in the reflection of the mirror.

"Let me taste you," I requested in a whisper as I saw the pre-cum start to weep out of his slit. He didn't disconnect our movement as he continued to ignore my words. So I begged by pleading his name.

"No," he answered so sternly that it pricked tears into the corners of my eyes. "I'm here to take care of you, not the other way round." His adjusted gentle tone kept the wetness confined but his rocking movement stopped as soon as a small climax caught me out of breath. With a minor shake in my legs I was set onto the floor again as he turned me round to face him and a tender kiss was placed on my lips. "What would you like?" he asked with a kind and encouraging smile.

"You," was the simplest answer I could give and he would know exactly what it meant. In a movement we had made many times before my legs lifted around his waist as he held me up by the soft of my behind. My arms rested atop his strong shoulders as I inhaled his scent in the crook of his neck. His fingers explored a little in the ridge of my now parted cheeks but I knew he'd go no further tonight. It was in memory of our first night that this performance would repeat.

My back hit the cool starch of the linens as I demurely parted my thighs at an innocent stance. Well as innocent as I ever was able. Pooling black, his eyes raked the sight of my body looking for a change or difference he would never find. Our bodies were exactly the same as then. The only the thing that ever changed with the times was the stance of our hairs.

Open mouth kisses travelled from my feet down my inner thigh, he only stopped to nuzzle the soft curls of hair that lay in between inhaling the scent of me and him. A draft of cool air ran over my glistening sex as it was emitted from his lungs. It shivered my body in anticipatory delight of the sensations only this man could ever bring. The kisses ventured up again till he reached the pinnacle at my knee where our eyes locked in a firm hold.

"You," I whispered omitting the two preceding words neither of us would ever admit to holding for the other. Love was an unspoken and crippling thing and there was no I, only an 'us'. He positioned his body between my thighs as his hands trailed down the sides of my body dipping into the singed waist a human lifetime of corsets had fashioned.

"Just breathe and exhale," he said softly. Kristian had repeated the line he had spoken to a flustered version of me when it was still necessary for my survival to do just that. I would never be flustered again after that night. His tone was almost accusing as he finished his previous sentence up with, "You."

My lips pursed in amusement as I acted the petulant child to the stern disciplinarian. Instead of punishment I received a rewarding kiss clearing my face of any disobedience as his tongue fought mine. We had gone on for hours like this in the past neither one of us refusing to concede. Only the sun would ultimately force our rest and we would continue to battle immediately upon rising. Tonight was different. Like he said, he came to take care of me and I would let him.

It came without warning just as it had then but I didn't gasp this time as he inched inside of me. I knew what to expect as he edged along the engorging walls that flooded out to greet the former victor of these nether lands. We fit just like that, barely a millimetre left between us and we shook in satisfaction as we reacquainted ourselves with the sensation of it. He set a languid pace as he murmured sweet nothings to my ears between pecks and blunt bites. Our reunion wasn't complete without him seeking out all the spots that drove me to that impending edge, close but never quite there.

A silent truce travelled between us and his hands immediately grabbed underneath my body seeking the full globes of my ass lifting me onto his now kneeling legs. In response my ankles locked behind his neck before he started to pound away. We had stopped portraying what we once were and verged into the territory of how we fucked since our time apart. I screamed again though the sounds of slapping skins. This time not in agony but in a continual stream of pleasure, only curses were able to leave my mouth in rare moments of comprehension. He only grinned in satisfaction as the expletives reached his ears, my filthy mouth had remained unchanged throughout the centuries as his cock throbbed in approval with each one as he continued to batter away. The heavy pendant of my necklace bounced from breast to breast between small leaps into the air, scenting it with my blood as it scratched away delicately at my skin.

A string of orgasms set off as he leaned forward forcing himself as deeply as possible. I clenched, aggressively strangling his cock in a hold even his strength would find hard to match. "Fuck," he groaned as the whites of his eyes flashed wide, his pupils falling back into his skull. While holding back what he almost threatened to spill with great effort I took advantage of his momentary weakening of defences and had him on his back the pulsating movement of my walls massaging the length of him as he continued to withhold his own completion from me.

The determination was clearly expressed in the fire of my eyes and the strength I called from every muscle in my body as I aggressively rode him closer to climax. Even as I moved his hands to squeeze at my breasts he didn't relent and I despised the kindness that resided in his eyes. It was no use fighting him he would always best me in the end. Exhausted I slumped on to his chest and expelled the air he told me to take and release, "Kristian… You."

With that white flag we found ourselves on our sides as he moved against me again stroking out the last of the sensations inside of me. My hands fisted into the short hairs on his scalp as disoriented lips sought each other as if seeking absolution. A nostalgic gasp escaped me and fell into the cavern of his mouth as the last thrill my body was able to release, wracked through every nerve of my system. I died just like I did then and he came with me sinking his fangs into my neck. Only in this moment did I miss the beats of my heart as I wanted to feel it slow down into nothing again. Instead of warm soil covering us both for three nights it was the heavy down duvet that cocooned us into a world of our own.

"You'd think I'd forget the night we first met?" he whispered in our newly founded dark realm. I fondled the diamond in between my fingers understanding its sudden appearance. There was no sense in trying to cover up my moment of forgetfulness. Technically I hadn't forgotten, I simply stood unknown of the date in circumstance of all that had gathered around us. Any other year and the party three nights from now would have surpassed the one that preceded it. This night had always been for the two of us. My sin was pardoned with a tender kiss to my forehead, scaring away the frown that had settled there.

"I remember that night often," Kristian said longingly with a raw honesty I didn't heard from him often. "When I caught the spirit of your wild eyes across the room and I knew you were not meant for humanity."

"You told me I didn't belong there," I alleged as my fingers whisked away at dark blond hairs on his chest. My wandering hand was stilled with his as he took the tips and kissed them one by one.

"You didn't," Kristian returned as he kissed down to my inner wrist. He inhaled my scent as it emanated strong on that particular spot. "You were overdressed."

"You can only ever be underdressed," I huffed out in defence, remembering the elaborate gown that was indeed better suited to a Royal Gala rather than the bourgeois party we were both attending.

His hand closed over the pendant as he chuckled, "Only you, min lille humlebi, could be overdressed in bed."

"You," I intoned with a menace I failed to back up, "are the one who dressed me with this tonight."

"Should I take it off," Kristian threatened playfully as he held the clasp in between his fingers. I growled darkly in return at which he chuckled, "I knew you would like it."

"I do," I returned with a softness that would only ever be reserved for him. "I'm sorry I don't have anything to give in return." My apology fell on deaf ears as he silenced my lips with his own.

"When are you going to learn," he admonished. "You are a gift to me. No fortune I can amass will ever be able to repay what I found in you."

"Don't," I warned pulling myself from his encompassing embrace. I left the warmth of the bed for the cool air and soon found myself running my fingers through the luxurious silks of my nightgowns.

"The light blue one," the deep voice recommended from behind me. It had arrived on my doorstep exactly one year ago, the tags still attached. Our arms reached out for the identical gown at the same time. He held the soft satin hanger quicker than I, spinning me round in the process. "Arms," he instructed to which I raised them up in accordance. The lightweight fabric fluttered down around my body cooling my heated skin. He raised my chin to his and he waited till I kissed him in apology for my earlier disregard. There was no hesitation on my account, my lips were always drawn to his mouth whatever expression they held.

On his guiding hand we returned to the bed. He sat against the headboard while I sat on the edge brushing out my hairs knowing his eyes followed every movement I made.

"How's Katarzyna?" I asked after his housekeeper who for much of her life has been his live in mistress. I don't know what their relationship is now, she retreats to his other home whenever I have visited. I only met her just the once. She's probably old now, I would have heard about it if she had died.

"Her memory is failing. I think it won't be long till Sofia takes her in permanently," he replied. Kristian never spoke of her with much warmth, I don't know if it was for my benefit or that he really felt little for her. He never had asked permission to feed her his blood, not that Aelia would grant that. I didn't like to think so but he did indeed care for her but it came with an expiration date. Detachment had already set in with her physical deterioration.

"How is my sister?" I asked of Sofia, Katarzyna's natural daughter, who had been raised as Kristian's human child. Her I had met on every visit and I had to admit she was amusing for a breather.

"Putting us all to shame with her mind," he grinned like a true father. I knew his affection of her wouldn't expire with her death like it already had with Katarzyna. Then again their liking wasn't based on mere attraction.

"The usual then," I returned as he lifted the covers up for me to slide in beside him. His arm pulled me close as I handed him the hardbound volume again. "Finish what you started."

My head rested on his bare chest as he found the page he last left. A soft kiss was placed on my forehead before our eyes started raking the pages for the words. I remained silent while the raw timbre of his voice reverted back to the eloquent upper class enunciation of the night when we first met.

It suited the tone of the novel that described the remnants of my past in a modern era. There wasn't a moment in my new existence that I regretted being taken from it. When Kristian noticed I had stopped listening to the words and only stared at the movement of his mouth his brow quirked up as he asked, "What?"

There was only one answer I could give to that.

"You."

…

…

…

**A/N: As I warned last week the expectations of the follow up of Sookie's statement were not to be taken too literal. So I hoped you enjoyed this little insight into Pam and her maker's complex relationship. We'll be back with Sookie and Eric next week and you will see what she really meant to say then with her proposition.**

***Hollinghurst: Alan Hollinghurst's_ The Line of Beauty_ is probably one of the most beautiful novels I have read in a long while, I sort of missed the initial hype and probably would have been too young to appreciate it at the time but it's simply one of those books that's a joy to read despite the fact that little happens on the pages. It felt suitable in this scene and feel free to further ignore my evangelism on literature.**

******I am now also on Facebook so I can keep up with the Fanfiction Minions postings. I only post the notifications of update links there so if you prefer that over the fanfiction notifications the direct link is in my profile.**


	12. Chapter 12 - Tease

"_Don't let pride be your downfall," I countered and I saw a modicum of acceptance travel across her eyes. She nodded her head as I admitted, "I let it be mine tonight and there was no prize in my conduct. I'm sorry."_

"_Are you sorry for what you did or that I was a witness to it?" she asked my chest. It was the first time I ever sensed true insecurity in her about me. My actions had shattered an image she had built up from the intricacies of my human mind. My fingers nudged her chin towards mine again. I wanted to look her in the eyes when I answered._

"_Both," I said truthfully and conveyed it through every pore of my body. "Officially I owe him no apology but he will have one. I don't approve of his behaviour around you but my reaction was excessive."_

_She nodded with satisfaction before she answered, "That's all I needed to hear."_

_Our heads turned collectively to the ceiling of the night sky once more. After the silence lasted longer than I cared for I asked, "What are you thinking?"_

"_I think we should have sex." _

Chapter 12 - Tease

**SPOV **

"I think we should have sex."

"Excuse me," he stammered out in response. There had been many who had propositioned me for sex over the years, spoken and more often unspoken, but never in such a cool business like tone as I had just done. It had always made me feel dirty regardless, as if I were a disposable object. I would have been disgusted by the tactless proposal of it were our roles reversed, Eric seemed merely puzzled, vaguely plagued with hope. My eyes, however, were overflowing with mirth and when he finally recognised it as such he grinned in accordance to our joint play of collusion.

"So I can deny it to you the next time you act like that," I explained with a taunting smirk.

"You've been denying me for weeks now," he returned not to be outdone. "I've gone this long, I can resist your thrall any night my little temptress. You really think that's going to keep me in line?"

"A girl can hope," I teased as I moved to straddle his waist trading the view of the night sky for the sparkling mischief in the clear blues of his eyes. "Besides, I own you Eric Northman."

"Really?" he replied with a satisfied smirk. "How do you suppose that?"

"Mmmm," I mused out fluttering my lashes as I hung my lips dangerously close to his. "For starters I own everything that once had your name attached to it."

"True," he conceded before craning his neck up to steal a kiss pulling me closer as my treacherous body melted into him with his exploratory hands roaming the expanse of my back threatening to reach my hovering behind to grind on down. When I became susceptible to getting lost in the sensation he mercilessly pulled away, only proving he knew how to play this game far better than I ever hoped I could. Gasping for air and the desire to return to those lips had only thrown me off my intent momentarily. Our scores were yet to settle but frustratingly he was already far ahead of me. "But that's things. Not me," Eric pointed out quite accurately.

"Well then I seriously overpaid," I returned as I trailed the tip of my nose along the arch of his neck. The heat of my breath sent visible shivers down his spine to join the tremors of the chuckles he was desperately trying to contain. When my tongue traced the movement in accordance I relished in recognising the weakening of his resolve.

"I hope you kept the receipt then," he retorted feebly, his earlier arrogance was waning as my caresses continued to test his resistance. I bluntly bit and suckled at the lobe of his ear and I knew I had him at a disadvantage then, as the unmistakeable sound of fangs rushing out with a snick became audible. A delicious grumble reverberated through us both as it came deeply from his chest.

"I don't think that's necessary," I whispered into the shell of his ear as we both tried to fight the mutual seduction of the other, now unsure what our endgame was becoming. It was my turn to shiver into him as he stroked the length of my thighs with his fingertips pushing the hem of my dress further up to my waist. "Didn't you once tell me you would answer 'yes' to any of my requests," I countered.

His hands stilled as he considered his impending defeat. Treachery plagued his features as he remembered how I had pointed out that was the exact problem that would pull us apart. There was a hint of disgust with the appearance of my triumphant grin. It reminded me of a photograph his sister Lovisa had once shown me of him, when they were children surrounded by an overturned board game. She had told me that he never took loss well and I delighted in knowing I was the cause of it now.

I rested my forehead over his staring intently into those loving eyes now filled with nerves as he sought for his last means of escape. "So," I started with a confidence I rarely possessed with the opposite sex. "Will you be mine?"

"No," he replied defiantly, full of reminiscence of that petulant child his sister had once described to me.

"No?" I questioned as the impending peak of our stalemate was nearing to either the destruction or the devouring of the other. Though it was clear to us both it would be the latter.

"I'm already yours," he countered sporting a grin I was all too happy to slap from his face. His words made me refrain from the itching of my palms that would result in domestic violence. "As you have always been mine."

I wanted to refute his claim but it was a pointless exercise. Others had come and gone in both of our lives and there was no denying we had both stayed true to another despite not knowing a thing, or of a confirmed existence of the other. Ghosts of our pasts had made what lay between us an inevitable. Perhaps it was foolish but even if it was a sinking ship we embarked on it regardless without hesitation.

"Since when?" I asked more out of curiosity, halting the standoff of our play.

"I knew you belonged in my heart the moment I saw you," Eric returned as his fingers ran through my hair. "It was an unworthy place for someone like you to be."

The heat between us melted to a warmth worthy of the best embraces. I pressed my lips to his softly cushioning back with a smile. Those thoughts in his head had bound me to him like no other had and I doubted any other would. It was a silly attempt to even consider denying it.

"Still believe that?"

"I wouldn't be here if I did," Eric answered as a lightness travelled through him that had always been absent when he was merely a man of my past. "How long have I been yours?"

I bit at the corner of my bottom lip as I prepared to confess the root of my own infatuation of him. "The moment your mind told me I was worth more than you could ever hope to afford," I confessed. "But you're truly a richer man now."

"Does that mean I can buy back my freedom?" he teased pulling us both from the severity of our statements.

"Never," I returned vehemently stealing the cheek from his satisfaction with my mouth. The kiss deepened as we were content with our mutual victories, however small they may be. He was mine. I was his. It was simple. It was good.

Our hands sought each other's bodies out for inspection as we came perilously close to making good on the statement that had ignited this conversation. Eric held back before I could, my confusion with the sudden ceasefire was explained when I sensed the now familiar void of Godric approaching.

He arrived beside us quicker than I managed to straighten out my dress or remove the lipstick smudges from Eric's lips. My embarrassed flush to the cheeks only further enhanced the evidence of red that betrayed our actions. Eric's face didn't match mine and when I settled on what it was, apprehension coupled with fear, my switch flipped. Gone was embarrassment and in its place stood defiance towards the weary looking Godric. It didn't escape his notice and he simply gave a minute nod before apologising for his intrusion. It was perfunctory in its gesture and as much as I respected and enjoyed Godric's company I had no interest acting like a child with him. Even if he is old as dirt.

I simply shrugged in response as I steadied myself on my feet again, "Next time knock or something," I informed with a hint of annoyance. "Eric shouldn't be acting as your personal PA system."

My tone was harsher than intended, I had yet to hear Godric's explanation of keeping Eric deliberately in the darkest place his mind could reside but I was far from forgiving now. I simply found it a hard thing to excuse an enduring amnesia. Eric was visibly tense as his maker's face only betrayed the minutest of expressions. I knew him to be amused and not in a condescending way but Eric lacked the resources to read his own maker as well as I did.

I pulled into his side wrapping my arm tightly round his waist, it was only his unease with the situation that allowed it to occur without hesitation. Visually I was claiming him like I had announced moments ago but in fact I was calming him in a display I felt his maker should take notice of. There was no doubt in my mind that Godric was the best maker a vampire could have but I found it deeply tragic that Eric ended up with a vampire who was as frugal with loving affection as he himself had experienced so little of it in his human days.

"You would make a good mother," Godric offered with a small smile. Were I not without a better understanding of the ancient vampire who stood in front of me I would have recoiled at the passive aggressive read into the statement. That I would never be one with the man beside me. Before Eric could spiral down into exactly that thought, judging by the minor tremors running down his spine at our apparent standoff, I answered sweetly, "Thank you Godric."

I had meant it. I took it as the compliment it was intended to be, he was conceding I was the better parent when it came to the emotional side of this existence. I would be the expert when it came to nurturing affection with Eric, who had thankfully calmed down but the tension was yet to be released from his strained muscles despite Godric's encouraging smile.

"Pam has requested you help out with an interrogation," Godric finally informed us both though the appeal was only intended for me.

"Give us a few minutes and we'll join you," I answered gesturing to our dishevelled appearances, to which Eric sheepishly patted down a few stray hairs. It only made me want to run my fingers through it to get it back to its former tousled state. He wore dishevelled remarkably well.

"Very well," Godric returned with a smirk before exiting the room with great haste.

"How do you do that?" Eric asked with amazement when it was just the two of us in the room again.

"Do what?" I returned while wiping away the remnants of my lipstick from his mouth with my thumb. He gave the pad a soft kiss when I mindlessly traced the crease between his lips. I regretted the fact there was no lipstick left on my lips to repeat the process all over again.

"Make him smile," he responded while adjusting the collar of my dress. There was nothing to be done for the wrinkles at my waistline, where the dress had bunched up, but we were hardly attending a fancy dinner anymore.

"He smiles all the time," I returned with my brows furrowed. "I'm not the cause of it."

"I can count the number of times he's smiled on one hand Sookie," Eric said with a hint of melancholy. "That includes the small smile he carried away just now."

"He hasn't had the responsibility for caring for anyone but himself for over two thousand years Eric and he never received much of it himself," I replied remembering vague discussions we had in the past. "I think he's scared you'll run away with his affection. Did he ever tell you why he fostered Pam?"

"No," he answered softly and I desperately wanted to kiss away the hurt that resided in his eyes. Priorities, however, dictated otherwise. "I didn't even know my maker had taken her under his wing."

It shouldn't have surprised me but it broke my heart nonetheless. Apparently Godric had modelled his relationship to Eric in the exact counter of Kristian and Pam's. It was smart, rational and fair but it lacked affection where theirs seemed centred exclusively on that. What worried me most was that perhaps in that emotional starvation what Eric sought with me would always leave him seeking. I knew from Pam's complex relationship to her maker that there was a part of her heart only he could fill, it was simply part of their makeup. The realisation came to me that my exploratory relationship with Eric extended beyond him and I. If I chose to be with him permanently, I couldn't disregard the contingent of vampires whose bloodline had animated his life from death. I was dating Eric but I would be marrying his entire house in the process. Whether I was a fae or not alliances would always be there.

"Ask him," I returned when my inner thoughts finally caught onto Eric's questioning stare. I didn't feel it my place to share the intricacies of Pam's most intimate relationships. What I did know, surely only scratched at the surface of it all anyhow. "This is all as new to him as it is to you. He hasn't figured out quite how to act with you yet."

He nodded in assent but there still seemed to be a lingering of insecurity that didn't suit him. It had never been there before when I was still able to read his mind. Of all the riches he had lost in his process of turning this is the one that would leave him truly destitute if it continued to exist. It was also the only thing I would not be able to return to him. Eric remained pensive as his hand held on to mine slightly firmer than I had become accustomed to as we sought out Godric by the main entrance to Pam's home.

There was little spoken between them overtly but I knew something was happening between them in their bond. The conversation was over before I could interject anything and I found myself wondering how being bound to Eric by blood would impact my independence. I had relinquished my hope for normalcy a long time ago, simplicity had left earlier that evening with my newfound status. The thought of losing myself in the process of connecting to another was, however, a daunting task that would take time to accept.

We followed Godric to a more modern looking utilitarian structure on the outskirts of Pam's estate. I had never ventured this far, Pam's despise of the outdoors had always kept us firmly indoors despite the beauty of the grounds. A collection of suspended voids resided inside and one human one. A woman named Staci and from the thoughts of her mind it seemed she'd be the type to dot that 'i' with a heart.

"What do you think Staci can tell you?" I asked of Godric who smiled appreciatively at my telepathically procured knowledge. Instead of taking in his smile I focused on the reaction it evoked in Eric. He wasn't lying that it was a rare sight to him as shock marred his face. As much as I hated it when people told me to smile more I was determined to do exactly that whenever the two of them were in my presence.

I recognised Shahbaz as he let us into the building, the chambers that housed the voids that I had recognised earlier were firmly closed. I didn't know what to expect from Pam's private stable of holding cells but it looked decidedly nicer and high tech than any human jail. One overnight visit was thankfully enough for Jason to clean up his act, otherwise I would never have known the poor conditions of such.

Shahbaz couldn't hide the curiosity of my presence in a building that I was sure hardly ever saw the presence of any being with a beating heart. Certainly not in my capacity. I knew the Guard of Anûšiya suspected there was more to me considering the respect Pam had always bestowed on me but it was clear that he had yet to pinpoint exactly what.

My stomach churned at the sight at the end of the hall. Human jail was suddenly looking decidedly more preferable as we passed a previously pristine white space splattered in remnants of oxidized blood. In the middle of the room sat a completely undisturbed Sophie Anne Leclerq filing away at her nails looking like the exact colour scheme of the room with her milky skin set in a pristinely white flapper dress untouched by a single speck of blood, the only sign of red being the long locks of her hair and her carefully painted lips. She seemed to be content with listening to the vague soundtrack of torturous screams emanating from the room next to her as orchestrated by her child.

We passed an identical looking chamber, blood included, before we reached the room holding Staci. Unlike the other interrogation cells this one could pass for a staff room with the small kitchenette and a warm decor. Staci was seated unaware as we observed her through the two-way mirror. I recognised the multiple sets of glamour fogging her brain as she was held in the trappings of her own mind.

"She doesn't look like a pet," Shahbaz informed us. It was an observation that would only be of interest to a vampire. He was accurate in the sense that Staci looked healthy, lacking the usual fang marks marring her youthful skin. She looked like a lost sorority girl, and though there were plenty of those hanging of the arms of a vampire in a period of experimentation, yet she seemed too wholesome to be that explorative with herself. "The girl has been with their nest for months but they do not feed from her."

"Are they feeding her?" I asked wondering if that would explain her healthy buoyant looks. I thought the simplicity of her mind was just her natural state but it could well be induced by a steady feeding of influencing vampire blood. In that sense it wasn't unlike any man-made drug.

"Not that we can discern. Northman," Shahbaz commanded, "your nose is more sensitive than any on the premises. What do you say?"

"She has been fed once," Eric returned with a focus and skill I was unware he possessed. "Long ago, it smells of your neighbour. She takes herbal supplements, other than that her scent carries nothing unusual."

"Is she…" I trailed off unsure how to ask such a delicate question that would only be viewed as such by me, "untouched?" By all appearances that was exactly what she looked like. Vampires, especially the Impurus, had a taste for the innocent but it was unusual to keep it around in pristine condition.

The three vampires in the room answered a resolute yes as if it wasn't a completely obscure piece of knowledge they possessed about every woman they ever interacted with. "She's not in her mind," I observed. "She's reliving months of courtship with Bill Compton. It doesn't feel like glamour."

I didn't bother asking what their attempts at glamour had procured from her mind, I wouldn't be standing there if that had been a fruitless exercise.

"She is of sound mind?" Godric asked while Shahbaz continued to eye me curiously putting together the pieces of information he knew about me. I nodded that she was in return.

"I'm a telepath," I informed off handed in Shahbaz's direction to confirm his suspicions. I assumed he was trustworthy and had enough on his mind already. There was a hint of surprise hidden in his features but it was mostly an acceptance of a proven theory.

"Will you be able to release her from it?" Godric queried as I continued to assess the strange workings of her mind.

"I'm not sure," I confessed. I had never come across a mental signature quite like it. I had removed it on some of Pam's staff before, unfortunately it was always the result of a bad cover up. Pam offered them a choice whether they wanted to remain unaware or not. There had only ever been one brave soul that chose to retain the memories of her trauma.

"Glamour always attaches itself to the subconscious so it remains unnoticed," I explained. "This is woven into her consciousness, like a rhizomatic root structure, there is no other choice for her but to believe it. But it's so obviously there."

"Maybe she wants to believe it," Shahbaz offered as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Despite his obvious qualities as a commanding soldier it became obvious to me he was the type of man that dealt unwell with uncertainties and the unknown. He lived by the knowledge of facts. "How do you wish to proceed?"

"I will need to talk to her, to understand what has taken root in her mind," I returned after some contemplation. "But she's frightened, I need to gain her trust. I don't think I'll be able to coax it out of her otherwise. Perhaps showing her Bill Compton is safe and sound will allow her to open up to me."

"That won't be possible," Shahbaz said shortly. I noticed Eric's irritation at the mere mention of the name and before it could fester any further I reached out for his hand softening his face to me in the process. It was a strange realisation that in Staci's mind it was the same look Bill gazed onto her adoringly. Thankfully I knew for certain that what Eric held for me was true. It was a look he had carried for me from the moment we met before either of us had brushed up against anything supernatural.

"Come with me," I requested of Eric as we collectively ignored the rest of the room in the tender looks we held for each other. "Pretend we just had mad passionate romantic sex."

"Do we really have to pretend?" he leered with that annoying quirked brow that could only reduce me to giggles. Instead of admonishing the crass nature of his statement I forced his gaze to Godric.

"Look," I said encouragingly. "You made Godric smile."

**A/N: Next week we'll be hearing from Eric again as we start to investigate Bill... because obviously the shithead is involved somehow...**


	13. Chapter 13 - Later

"_I will need to talk to her, to understand what has taken root in her mind," I returned after some contemplation. "But she's frightened, I need to gain her trust. I don't think I'll be able to coax it out of her otherwise. Perhaps showing her Bill Compton is safe and sound will allow her to open up to me."_

"_That won't be possible," Shahbaz said shortly. I noticed Eric's irritation and before it could fester any further I reached out for his hand softening his face to me in the process. It was a strange realisation that in Staci's mind it was the same look Bill gazed onto her adoringly. Thankfully I knew for certain that what he held for me was true. It was a look he had carried for me from the moment we met before either of us had brushed up against anything supernatural. _

"_Come with me," I requested of Eric as we collectively ignored the rest of the room in the tender looks we held for each other. "Pretend we just had mad passionate romantic sex."_

"_Do we really have to pretend?" he leered with that annoying quirked brow that could only reduce me to giggles. Instead of admonishing the crass nature of his statement I forced his gaze to Godric._

"_Look," I said encouragingly. "You made Godric smile."_

**Chapter 13 – Later**

_EPOV_

It was a real smile and I felt it through the bond that he truly was amused by my antics. Godric didn't let me into his side often, usually only when he was proud or approving. The rare few times I had disappointed or shamed him had been the other times. Nothing could quite bring me to my knees like the anguish I would feel when that came resonating from my maker.

Despite it being such a rare occurrence to feel that much of any depth from my maker my mind lay elsewhere. The possibility of a bond with Sookie was a possibility I had never dared think would be a possibility for us. They were rare, like the sharing of our blood determined by the Grandest Sire of our house. Since Aelia had mentioned it, or rather stealthily proposed the possibility, it had become impossible not to think of anything else when I was in her presence.

The only bond I had ever shared was with my maker. Godric mostly closed it from his side and I knew he blocked my presence inside him most of the time. It had taken a long time to accept the indifference in him towards me was borne out of my own overflowing state of confusion that was the amnesia. Somewhere along the way it had become our state of normalcy. It was a cold place to be and that shared experience made the smile gracing his face more rewarding than anything.

"Come along," Sookie chided when I apparently lingered too long and had Shahbaz chuckling too. I was the laughing stock amongst the Sanguine but I couldn't care less, the two most important people to me were the cause of it and not even mad passionate romantic sex with Sookie could possibly feel this good. Somehow her tiny form was dragging my mindless self along as we stumbled into the room where Staci resided. When finally coming to my senses I remembered Sookie's instructions of our pretend post coital bliss and refused to let the opportunity pass to grab her ass.

"ERIC!" she shrieked while slapping away my hand. I'm sure the not so innocent look on my face only helped her inability to truly be mad about it as her teeth desperately tried to contain a grin.

"We just had passionate primal sex together woman," I taunted back. I realised by Sookie's shocked expression that turned from amused to pissed, with my incorrect choice of words to describe our supposed coupling, that there was something extremely arousing in riling her up. By the scent of her I wasn't the only one that was experiencing just that. My grin was unstoppable with that realisation. "No need to be coy. Your ass is mine."

"Sorry," she gestured over to the innocent looking girl feigning much of that herself. "He's a horndog."

I couldn't help but growl a little and let out a low volume bark as I nibbled at her earlobe. Apparently I was overdoing it because Sookie was melting into a puddle and was only pulled from her distraction when young Staci was tittering softly at our antics.

"Off," she whispered with a hint of threat that let me know we were no longer playing and had her firmly in charge again. However, her act was far from finished as she turned around and sweetly kissed me. "Honey, why don't you go find me that dinner that you promised me? Make sure they bring her something too," she cooed gesturing behind her. She batted her eyelashes like the porcelain princess she never was and I prayed to god never would be as she pouted a little and arched her neck at me enticingly, "Pretty please? You know if I eat you might get a little snack too."

I blinked unnecessarily with her chosen words, a tainted reminder of my past. Reminiscent words from women that I once entertained where everything came at a cost. Emotional or financial, often both. When you have all the money in the world you discover there is very little that isn't up for sale and find everything desires to be bought. I had to hold her soft cheeks between the palms of my hands and look deeply into her eyes to affirm what was real between us, that this personality wasn't the one I was chasing.

She smiled a secret smile that I knew was only meant for me. The fire in her eyes told me she was still pissed at my ploy of grab ass. It reassured me all the more that this was the Sookie that meant everything to me.

"Of course my sweet," I returned like the indulgent sugar daddy I was apparently supposed to portray. Kissing her chastely on the lip she giggled like a thirteen year old girl and I had to seriously restrain myself from keeping the fine cuisine of earlier in the night inside of me. I knew I should have paid more attention to the mischief because as soon as I turned round a rather forceful slap smacked across my own ass. Dumbfounded my head turned to look at my aggressor who stood fluttering her lashes with a triumphant grin that celebrated her payback. Little did she know that she was only upping the ante.

"Bye bye, big daddy," she said with a saccharine sweetness and a limp wave that had me reaching for my toothbrush with the acid reflux that threatened to surface. I mumbled something incoherent, to the sound of a greeting before re-joining my maker and Shahbaz behind the two way mirror. Either they were still laughing at me from my point of departure or our little show had brought it to greater hilarity. I feared it was both and I was seriously reconsidering how much I enjoyed my maker laughing at me.

"Sorry about that," she said congenially in Staci's direction. I finally recognised the role she was portraying, it was who Sookie pretended to be at the diner she once worked at. She held back the performance with me, I'm unsure why perhaps because I never responded well to the over friendly nature of American establishments. In the own deluded privacy of my mind I liked to entertain that Sookie didn't feel the need to act the part around me. I knew this was how Sookie raked in the biggest tips and it seemed to work for tip offs too, as the girl was immediately drawn to Sookie's congenial presence.

"No worries," she said shyly. With an encouraging smile from Sookie that I knew always got her customers to instantly decide what they wanted, Staci gushed, "You two are so cute together."

"Thanks," Sookie threw over her shoulder as she was rummaging through the refrigerator like she came there on a daily basis. She pulled out two soft drinks setting them down on the counter before finding two tall glasses. "First time here?" she asked placing the beverages in front of them. With an affirmative nod 'bubbly' Sookie continued petting her arm, "Thought so. Don't worry it's just secret vampire business, he'll be back soon enough."

"Have you known each other long?" Staci asked who was quickly losing the nerves that had held her glued to her seat earlier.

"Yup," Sookie replied making a popping noise of the 'p'. "Over ten years now."

"Wow," Staci gushed before ascertaining Sookie with more scrutiny. "You don't look…"

"Old," Sookie smiled back tucking a loose strand of hair behind the girl's ear. The touchy feely Sookie was a new sight to me. From memory I knew she usually stiffened when a customer touched her, innocently or not. The trigger to increased telepathy explained it to me now, when it had left me merely wondering then. My touch was the only one she never had recoiled from, it was a high point of pride to me. "Vampire blood keeps us looking young, sweetie. Doesn't your vamp share his blood with you?"

The girl blushed deeper than I had ever seen, the thoughts in her head must have been especially graphic since Sookie coloured suit. "From the moment we met," she whispered so only she and Sookie would be able to hear if there had been any other human in the room. Sookie mouthed an impressed 'wow' with wide eyes as if Staci were the queen bee of the gold-digging fangbangers.

"Oh, it wasn't like that all," she quickly corrected Sookie's supposed assumptions of her prowess. "He hit me with his car, but it was totally my fault. It was sooooo dark and I wasn't paying attention," Staci continued. Dark my ass there's little that doesn't pass our scrutiny at night. "He gave me his blood to heal me and then well..."

"You two fell in love," Sookie piped in as if her heart was about to burst with the discovery of it.

"Yes," Staci said gleefully as her head bobbed up and down like one of those novelty items on a dashboard. It was frightening to see Sookie mirror the action so expertly.

"So you and…" Sookie asked knowing full well to expect the receiving answer of Bill. Though Staci referred to him as William as if it were the most unique name in the world. The lies that were planted in her mind quickly came tumbling out with Sookie's encouragement.

"What is she doing?" Shahbaz asked curiously. I didn't appreciate his interest in Sookie earlier but he seemed respectful enough of our connection now. It was merely fascination with her skill that had him intrigued with Sookie.

"Sookie is following the paths of the girl's thoughts. I think the true memories reside beside it," Godric explained as he seemed to know the most of the technicalities of Sookie's ability. "Eric," he said pulling my attention back to the scene in the room where Sookie appeared to be writing my name with her fingers on the surface of the table and seeking eye contact with the mirror. I grabbed the two lunch bags that had been procured in my absence and was knocking on the door in an instant.

"Sugar tits," I smiled at her hoping to ruin her appetite as she had mine. When she looked equally ready to hurl and pissed I knew I had hit the right trigger. I held the two lunch bags tauntingly high out of reach, making good use of my considerable height. "I come bearing gifts."

"Give it to me then, _daddy,"_ she whined in what some men would find attractive but made me swear I still possessed bile in this transformed body. To her credit, Sookie was giving me an expert training on how to hold my face like a Sanguine as I swallowed the foul taste in my mouth.

"You eat, I eat sweet cheeks," I threw back at her reminding her of the proposed deal while pulling her body into mine holding her in place by her generous ass. I was happily flaccid with her infantile act but the irked set of her eyes had us both surprised when something started straining in my pants against her soft stomach.

"Later," she said sweetly through the worst fake smile I had ever seen. Thankfully her back was to Staci so it was purely for my benefit. I had to gulp a little knowing there definitely wasn't going to be a later. She beckoned the set of lunch bags down and nudged my ears to her lips to whisper what appeared to Staci to be a seductive promise, "Pick me up in five and have a pen and paper ready."

"I will gladly eat out that sweet pussy of yours," I growled out in an overtly audible response to the room. It was delightful to beat her at her own game as Sookie surpassed Staci in the most embarrassed blush ever sported championship. She was pissed and turned on at the same time, that only seemed to piss her off even more and that had _me_ following suit in the other direction. I kissed her scowl from her face as she tried to disentangle herself from me and my forceful erection and breathed out a low and threatening, "Later."

Leaving her in a state of fluster I moved from the room with my back to the door fearful of her immediate retaliation. Consciously I knew she would be conjuring up a punishment for my actions which would be far worse than a slap on the ass or a humiliation in front of my maker. I feared her threat of withholding sex from me was one that stood to stand for an extended period. By the time I had returned to my observing post behind the mirror Sookie had already transformed into her perky self, making apologies for my behaviour.

"You are walking a thin line my child," Godric noted with a slight chuckle from my side. The amusement was barely contained as it seemed to overflow into our faint bond.

"She started it," I huffed back portraying the petulant child bride Sookie pretended to be. We shared our amusement more openly through the bond from that moment on as I carefully continued to observe the clock.

"She is better for you," Godric said with withheld words. Nearly ten years had taught me that much with him. The sentences he spoke directly always held more meaning than what was being said. It clicked with me now why Sookie had not been upset with his statement of her being a good mother. At the time I had taken it as an insult that she would never be one with me. A verbal retaliation for her apparent disrespect. I knew all too well it was not an uncommon occurrence to be at the receiving end of that.

"No," I returned my eyes still fixed to the clock, monitoring every second that ticked away to five full minutes. "She is a good partner. You are the best maker."

With thirty-eight seconds left on the clock I felt the full force of his quiet appreciation and pride through the bond we shared. In that I understood what it would mean to share that as equals as Aelia had requested of Sookie and I. It wouldn't be a state of subservience as it had always been with my maker. No matter how much possible physical control I could have over Sookie, she had just demonstrated she had every cunning at her disposal to undermine me. Equality had become a foreign concept to me since my turning but with Sookie that could be had again. The warm feeling that thought brought me nearly had me missing the agreed time to release Sookie from the room.

With my formidable speed I made it back to the door with a second to spare. "Ready to go, little lady?" I asked with a quirk in my brows. I had yet to see Sookie this pissed, I had witnessed it on that lovely voicemail message she had left Pam once, where she had accused us both of manipulating the former occupants of her childhood home. My survival instinct hinted I should be more scared than I was. However, _I _knew that as the true lady Sookie was, she would always come back with the best apologies when she calmed down. She was blaming me now for her anger but come tomorrow Sookie would realise she was pissed because she had responded to it. Perhaps I would get something to eat after all.

Refusing to address me any further apart from a scowl, a 'sweet' compliance was uttered before she bid her goodbye to Staci assuring her William would be back soon enough or someone would drive her home. They promised to keep in touch when they exchanged phone numbers but Sookie seemed anxious to get out as soon as possible so I refrained from heating up her fire any further for my own enjoyment.

She was icily silent as we walked back the short distance to the room next door. Sookie sat down at the desk and scribbled away at a furious pace on the legal pad that was placed there. She shushed me when I attempted to ask if she were in need of anything else when I sat beside her. I refrained from looking at Shahbaz and my maker from that point on. I didn't need to witness their silent laughter to know it was there.

Her notes appeared to be a maze of connected thoughts as she finally finished writing up the last of her gathered intelligence. I was surprised to find her grabbing for my hand as she closed her eyes and seemed to decompress. "I just need a bit of silence right now," she said with a hint of exhaustion. Three sets of eyes peered curiously at her as she seemed to revel in the silence. My thumb drew small circles over the back of her hand and with a small moan she sank against my body which had me hoping my forgiveness was closer than my anticipated scheduling of it.

When I was looking decidedly smug she unfortunately pulled away with great distance killing my earlier hopes of being pardoned. "I counted six separate glamours aside from the one I couldn't identify," Sookie explained directing it mostly to Shahbaz. "How many of them are yours?"

"Two," he said in acknowledgement.

"Can you release them?"

"Yes," he answered. "They were placed out of precaution."

"Good," Sookie returned. "I think you should turn her."

The three stares looked at her with simultaneous questioning blinks. "_Turn_ her for counter intelligence," she clarified understanding the severity of the word had a different weight to it to a room full of vampires than her. "Look," Sookie said gesturing to her notes. All three of us looked at her hasty penmanship to read the different encrypted messages that were being run back and forth. "Staci has been running messages between Bill Compton and a Sanguine I don't know. In her mind they are all wildly romantic dates with Bill and she works as a day person for the other three detainees."

"This Sanguine has been imposing this deception of her mind?" Godric enquied with a look that told me he was searching the depths of his memory to ascertain a Sanguine who could possess this capable gift.

"You are both aware of my other supernatural state by now?" Sookie asked addressing the other two vampires in the room. Their confirming nod had me thinking that information seemed to be shared with ease around here with everyone but me. "I think it's someone like me."

We were all silenced by that piece of information as we contemplated the consequences this would hold for us all. "What is your proposal?" Shahbaz finally asked with an increased respect of her esteem.

"Bill Compton is your obvious leak," she said after some thought. "He'll jump at the opportunity for a position at the palace. We can summon him without suspicion, we feed him false information to take back to the other Sanguine. Meanwhile I read out Staci's brain where I appear to be merely an innocent friend."

"To the outside world it'll appear Pam is appeasing to the threat of the terrorists in offering Mr Compton a job," my maker objected. "She will come across weak."

"To the unthinking yes," Sookie responded. "To most it'll come across as an appeasing gesture with little merit."

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak*," I reminded my maker of the teachings of Sun Tzu he had taught me so diligently.

"I shall put in the proposal with our queen," Shahbaz said giving it his seal of approval.

"Not necessary," the rich voice of Aelia sang from the other doorway to the room. "Shahbaz, make sure Mr Compton is healed and fully apologised to before sending him home with the human. Tell him to come back to court tomorrow where the Queen will personally see to him and the human's reparations."

After a ceremonial nod Shahbaz departed and the faint sounds of torture in the background seized. Aelia sat in his vacated seat looking over the sentences Sookie had put down with a calculated scrutiny. "You are quite the asset young Sookie," she smiled appreciatively.

"Sookie has learned quite a lot from an insight into the human world's finest procurers of intelligence," Godric deduced astutely remembering Sookie's association with the different intelligence agencies of the world. "There is much to learn from them."

"Yes," Aelia agreed. "My instincts would have been to end the Impurus and his pet while we waited for the next to take his place. This works in our favour in more ways than one."

I couldn't help but beam with pride at _my_ Sookie, because that is what she had agreed to be earlier in the night despite the weight of a bond that was requested from her. "Thank you," Sookie said softly out of courtesy, it had become quite apparent to me she did not take to accolades well. Her deeds had always been silent ones and with no one else to stand witness to that, little appreciation was given in return. I grabbed her hand and kissed it softly to express my gratitude and a small smile appeared from her lips and her distaste with my earlier actions was momentarily erased from her burning eyes.

"So how about our _later_," I leered because I didn't think I would be able to dig my grave any deeper than I already had that night.

"Remember our earlier conversation," she said pointedly with narrowed eyes as she softly petted my forearm before dropping it unceremoniously. "All I gotta say is you better start getting real friendly with that hand of yours."

_Remember_ when _I_ was so happy to see everyone laugh... not so much anymore.

**We'll pick up next time with Godric's point of view. ****Remember to check all the lovely entries in the second edition of Sephrenia's Writing Challenge where this story was birthed from... sephwritchallenge. wordpress. com**


	14. Chapter 14 - Best

**A/N: A small reminder since it was many chapters ago that it was last mentioned as we haven't heard from Godric in a while: Godric was an accidental turning. He was a slave that was simply a lesson in turning where they fully expected him to be an Impurus that would be staked upon rising as the Sanguine traditionally sourced their prospective children from aristocratic families. Since his maker was so young they were raised as siblings. This chapter delves into those beginnings a bit and gives some motivation to his difficulty to express any warmth towards Eric and where his political stance in the Impurus/Sanguine relations comes from.**

"_Sookie has learned quite a lot from an insight into the human world's finest procurers of intelligence," Godric deduced astutely remembering Sookie's association with the different intelligence agencies of the world. "There is much to learn from them."_

"_Yes," Aelia agreed. "My instincts would have been to end the Impurus and his pet while we waited for the next to take his place. This works in our favour in more ways than one."_

_I couldn't help but beam with pride at my Sookie, because that is what she had agreed to be earlier in the night despite the weight of a bond that was requested from her. "Thank you," Sookie said softly out of courtesy, it had become quite apparent to me she did not take to accolades well. Her deeds had always been silent ones and with no one else to stand witness to that, little appreciation was given in return. I grabbed her hand and kissed it softly to express my gratitude and a small smile appeared from her lips and her distaste with my earlier actions was momentarily erased from her burning eyes. _

"_So how about our later," I leered because I didn't think I would be able to dig my grave any deeper than I already had that night._

"_Remember our earlier conversation," she said pointedly with narrowed eyes as she softly petted my forearm before dropping it unceremoniously. "All I gotta say is you better start getting real friendly with that hand of yours." _

_Remember when I was so happy to see everyone laugh... not so much anymore. _

**Chapter 14 – Best **

_GPOV_

Sookietruly was a gift to my child. She brought out a side to Eric I never knew existed and that isn't the horndog she was speaking of. I had experienced the sensations of that residing in him in the early days often enough, it disappeared as soon as his memories refocused on Sookie. Apparently she was now responsible for the resurrection of that particular personality trait. Fortunately I didn't seem to mind its presence as much as I had in the past.

Perhaps it was my downtrodden moods that lingered inside Eric that had lightened in Sookie's care. I remember she did much the same for me in the few moments of interaction we ever shared. I had always disregarded Eric's romantic notions, his flowery words, that there was a light that resided inside her. I couldn't deny it much anymore as I stood witness to it. It had nothing to do with the fae spark that sat there happily beside it. There was something that burned brightly almost as blindingly as the ire in her eyes now.

It was probably an accurate assessment to assume that the 'horndog' would be residing in the doghouse for a while. Little did Eric know that the tempers of the fae are legendary and a grudge is held excessively long. As in centuries long. Due to the late hour there was little of that resistance present and upon taking notice of Sookie's exhaustion I encouraged Eric to take her home. Leaving it to him where he takes his day rest, or rather to Sookie in this instance.

"Their passion is still so young and untamed," Aelia regarded with a wistful smile once they departed our company. "Don't you miss it?"

"We are no longer young," I returned to my Grandest Sire who was my senior by a good few millennia. She smirked knowingly at my acknowledging of the untamed. We both knew better, Sanguine or Impurus, a vampire would never be tame. Though Sookie seemed to be quite the lion tamer judging by her performance with Eric tonight.

"They are good together," she observed while simultaneously raking her eyes over Sookie's intricate script.

"I sense there is more to your statement than that," I returned testing the waters of how concerned I should be. She had seemed friendly and familiar with Sookie and though that should have concerned me it had not so far. Perhaps because Sookie responded equally warm in return to Aelia and I trusted her judgement of character.

"I forget in your absence that you are the only one that speaks as well as I," she retorted with an approving smile.

"You were a good tutor," I conceded in return.

"Not all were as apt pupils as you," Aelia complimented sincerely. She set the sheets of paper aside, now firmly committed to her memory. It was a trait that ran strong in all the females of our line, it was Pamela's most strongly pronounced gift. It made her an excellent administrator, which was what the monarchs concerned themselves with mostly. "You still won't consider a more political role?"

"Times are too turbulent," I offered in excuse. I had one for her every time she asked, they were all justifiable objections but they were never the true reason. We both knew I didn't aspire to such high stations even though I had the acumen for it.

Two thousand years and still I could not reconcile the inequality that our changed DNA forced us to. Frankly we held humans in higher regard than the Impurus. Everything around us changed bar that, our family motto even taunted us with it. _Animum debes mutare, non caelum_ [You must change your disposition, not your sky]. A change of scenery would not change the root of your problems, only through progression do we survive. We were known for our adaptation with time and sense of civic duty, a Sanguine of the house of Aurelie was yet to leave a post in disgrace. Problems were faced head on, and in less prestigious positions many Aurelies like me had acted as mediators among the different houses. However, Aelia simply refused to change her position on this specific subject along with the other oldest and strongest houses of Sanguine.

"You must consider your childe and his intended too," she supplemented, aiding me in the lie we created together. I simply nodded in agreement as we watched a restored Mr Compton pick up his pet and depart. The girl seemed extremely happy in her deception despite his apparent apathy for her. They were not all decent, the Impurus, but neither were all the Sanguine. Compton's delight with coming out relatively unscathed was clearly legible on his face. Pam had held him on instinct of his close proximity to the scene of the crime. I was proud to see she had relied on that instinct as strongly as I had taught her so long ago. It had paid off well tonight.

"What do you remember of the fae?" I asked concerned with the new threat to our reigns.

"Much," she answered frugally which meant it would take _much_ to pull it from her. A very human sigh escaped from my lips which only caused her to laugh at me. I could not remember a night where there had been so much of that. It should not have surprised me, during times of crisis one either laughed or cried, often a combination of both.

"Two hours till sundown Aelia," I said shaking my head. "And you answer with _much_."

"There is _much_ to tell of the fae," she countered slightly piqued, though it was obviously for dramatic effect. We knew each other's tells far too well through the many ages between us. "Did Lucius not instruct you thoroughly?" Aelia taunted.

"You know my Grandsire had little concern with the past."

"Yes," she returned with a slight irritation. "I believe that is what killed him in the end."

"Perhaps," I responded not fully in agreement with her assessment of her favoured grandchild's sudden death. It was, however, a discussion I had stopped having with Aelia over centuries ago, when we had both agreed to disagree. "I know much of the fae but not about them."

"Our magic was stronger alongside theirs," Aelia said with a hint of melancholy as she gazed longingly at her impeccably manicured hands. "We could be out in the sun with no repercussions. The powers were stronger inside of us. We had it all; the sun, the moon and an eternity of time."

"Our kind killed them, were we not aware of their influence?" I asked to which her sullen face immediately turned to one of silent fury. I knew she would never harm me as a beloved great-grandchild, however, without that knowledge I would have sincerely feared her capability at wrath.

"The Impurus killed them," she sneered in correction. "Weakening us and themselves even further." I wondered how selective her memory was of these events, just like her interpretation of my Grandmaker's death. I did not know if this was her source of distaste towards the Impurus or if that existed within her long before that, the vitriol was palpable in the air nonetheless.

"Yet some have managed to survive in human blood lines," I observed of Sookie and the possible unidentified mind warper that brought further threat to our reigns.

"None were supposed to be left behind when they sealed the portals to Faerum."

"I was told they were extinct," I said with a recognisable surprise that I did not bother to hide, until now I had merely assumed Sookie was a remnant of a forgotten species.

"Lucius truly was negligent in this department," she noted admonishingly like he were a truant child. Incidentally she always encouraged and enjoyed the unapologetic behaviour that was his continued mischief well into old age. It was not unlike the behaviour Sookie had elicited from Eric in their pretence earlier this night. Just like Eric it landed Lucius in continued trouble with the strong minded women like Aelia in his life. "You are right, two hours will not inform you of what you will need to know. The necessary tomes will be in your room by sundown tonight." Her hands flew away at her phone typing instructions to the librarian at Aelia's estate that would surely have the required volumes packed and sent away within minutes of her orders.

I was reminded of the castor's words who had removed the spell from the former inhabitants of Sookie's home. The magic had been unlike any she had encountered before and she sensed an unusual presence of magic in the woods beyond the house. I too sensed 'something' when she had shown it to me but I had no real reference of what I was looking for.

"I think a portal resides on Sookie's lands," I informed Aelia, her distraction with the orders she was sending out at rapid speeds lay quickly forgotten. The phone thudding loudly on the table in the process. Her eyes were wide with attention at my off handed comment. "Would you be able to tell?"

"Only if it is still functioning," she said with a youthful eagerness I had not seen in Aelia since I could still accurately describe myself as such. "You sensed a presence of otherworldly magic?"

"Yes," I admitted. "The witch who removed the spell binding the former tenants to Sookie's home said it was unlike any she had ever come across. I knew as little as she as to the source. Till tonight."

Aelia didn't respond which meant her mind was going into overdrive and rather than let me into the myriad of thoughts that resided there, her elegant fingers typed away more ferociously than before. I got up leaving her to it, a greeting passed my mouth but I knew it would never reach her in this state. Thankfully the room was light tight otherwise I might find her still sitting here tomorrow at sunset looking the same red shade as her dress.

As I passed Sophie Anne, who seemed to be happily filing away at her nails for hours on end, I was reminded it wasn't just with Sookie that Eric was in trouble with. Lucius' wild blood seemed to be settling into Eric in more ways than one. Andre had been disrespectful but had no knowledge of Sookie's elevated status. His eyes should have told him as much but Sophie Anne did not foster much intelligence in her children. Regardless, Eric would have to know those actions could not continue to stand unpunished even if the rules of the Sanguine dictated otherwise.

I contemplated a stroll in the wooded landscape beyond, perhaps revisit the path where mine and Eric's crossed into this shared one. The heavens halted my plans as the rain washed away heavily at the thin material of my linen tunic. I had yet to find a fabric I was more attached to, unfortunately it did not hold up well in the rain so I reluctantly moved indoors.

I circumvented checking in on Pam knowing she and Kristian would be in her private quarters for hours, undisturbed in their mutual rediscovery of each other thinking us all unaware. I checked on Eric through the bond who was already asleep, well ahead of schedule. Either Sookie had been quick with forgiveness or he had chosen to initiate his day rest to avoid feeling the strain of her possible reprimands.

Settling into the sumptuous bed with my newest novel had my thoughts running back to the first time I ever experienced such a luxury. I had shared it with my Maker then, who insisted I sleep beside her after she bathed the dirt from me that had resided there long before Lucius and she had buried me in the ground. I cried profusely in her arms at the comfort I found, it wasn't from relief but rather guilt that someone like me would be afforded this much. In truth the guilt had never disappeared.

Lucius raised us as siblings as we were but a mere year apart. In our private sphere of two, Tulla would care for me like a mother as I adjusted to the customs of a world she was borne into. In return I became the family to her that she so dearly missed. Our trajectories, however, moved in opposite ways. She stood high at the beginning and fell fast while from my humble start I could only move up. Despite all the riches she can afford, she now lives a humble reclusive life. It has been centuries since we spoke, she was never quite the same after Lucius' death. Another thing that we shared but could never seem to express. We only corresponded briefly when Eric was born. Officially I required her permission though there were exemptions with emergency turnings such as Eric's.

Regardless I would never need to ask anything of Tulla, she would say yes to anything I requested. It never entered my mind to assure her I was well after the attack in the sense that Sookie and Eric had done immediately with their loved ones. It would be nearing the late afternoon in her part of the world and I knew she spent that time in the sun every day. No one was there to be frightened by the intense sunburn she would carry afterwards, so she indulged herself with the warming rays, perhaps the only luxury she still afforded herself without qualm.

The telephone rang two times before she answered, "Godric, I have been expecting your call." I doubted her home had been progressing with modern times for her to possess caller ID, for I would be the only one to ever call her.

"For how long?" I couldn't help but ask. The tittering of her response was one I could never help but revel in. Her spirit had always been light to my own darkness and it blossomed effulgently in her simple existence, life away from court suited her best. Were it not for Eric I would be seeking a similar way of life.

"But a few days," she confessed with what I knew was a contained smile on her face. From her human days as high noble woman she had been trained never to express the depths of her emotions on the exterior and even in the privacy of her own company those teachings never faltered. "Something is different with your child."

"Eric," I returned offering the name she wouldn't have issue remembering, but I wanted her to feel the pride I had in him through our faint bond.

"I knew you would make a good father," Tulla encouraged upon receiving the affection I held for him. It reminded me of how I had given Sookie the same compliment that night. The words had left my mouth before my rationale had the thought to intervene, only then did I realise the misinterpretation that could have been had. Sookie proved to be more than I had accredited to her when she understood exactly what I had meant to say. That her expression of affection was an easier one to understand for Eric than mine would ever be.

"I am not always so sure of that myself," I admitted while trailing the spine of the untouched novel that sat in my lap. I had never felt anything from Eric that would make me think as much, his declaration that I was the best Maker to him had momentarily filled me with pride earlier that night. Only later did it sink in he only ever knew one Maker, it was not a position one could compete for like that of a favoured child. I had stolen that from Tulla without desire to with Lucius, the blood simply ran stronger in me and it had dictated our fates since.

"Is it still dark on your side of the world?"

"The sun is not up," I answered though I knew she was asking after a different kind of darkness that had nothing to do with my geographic location.

"That is not what I am asking of you," she chided with a lightness of tone that always pulled more answers from me than a scolding one ever did.

"It is darker than normal," I confessed, "I no longer know where to stand."

"Your heart could be so much bigger if you would just allow it Godric," she pleaded with me. It was an appeal she had requested of me many times but not even a Maker's command could let it come to be. Incapable of answering I merely let out a sigh in response indicating I no longer wished to speak of it.

"What made you call," Tulla asked instead.

"I was remembering the first time I lay in such a comfortable bed after you washed me," I answered honestly. It wasn't often I indulged in reminiscence, the past was mostly indifferent to me with a few high and low points. Lucius had taught us that, there was little we could change once it had occurred there was no use fighting the past. Tulla always took that lesson more aptly than I ever did, she accepted things as they came not as she wished them to be.

"It was a first for me too," she returned warmly as the weightlessness of her spirit danced along the severity of mine in our intertwined bond. "I had never bathed anyone else before, but you were so weary of the servants."

"You were so confident," I whispered in memory, my voice as quiet as it was then, finding it hard to believe her words.

"Confidence is best faked when you have little of it Godric," Tulla offered in explanation and it was a statement I couldn't help but agree with. "I had to be the strong one when you were so ill equipped to handle what this new world offered you."

"You are the best Maker," I said gifting her the words that had momentarily filled me with pride when they had been spoken to me. The only difference was to Tulla there had been a competition between two, she lost to me with Lucius as I became the favoured child, however, with me she would always win. She was silent but the bond spoke enough for the both of us, it wasn't pride that swelled her heart. There was acceptance and adoration that reverberated between us. In a small way my heart surged along with hers.

"What inspired you to say this to me?" she finally asked with a shake to her voice that informed me tears had fallen from her eyes. The words had come from Eric but I knew Sookie was the inspiration that had him sharing them with me.

"The thing that is different with my child," I offered though I had yet to find an accurate answer to what that was exactly. Tulla was never one to demand exacting answers so it would not matter to her what the true source was.

"Then you must carry the gratitude in which this gift is given," she said encouragingly. "It has done so much for you already."

Without all the answers Tulla knew exactly of what she spoke, Sookie was not merely a gifted individual that coaxed unknown depths from Eric. She was a gift to us all. Sookie had walked a similar path to mine coming from rags to riches but she stuck to her core. It was an exceedingly generous one that now included me. Perhaps her unending status as an outsider saw little need to alter herself to the pleasure of others. A quiet strength resided in her that was not unlike Tulla's, born out of insecurity, it was the light that burned so brightly in them both. That attitude had made me see there was more to the vanity that surrounded our gilt existence for the first time.

My heart. It had grown bigger from her mere presence. Somewhere I had allowed for it and that truly was a gift greater than us all.

**A/N: So I hope you appreciated a bit of Godric and the background to the Fae/Sanguine relations, even if it took us away from Eric and Sookie a bit. We will get back to them next time and I promise Sookie won't hold a grudge against Eric for centuries as we delve back into the mystery with Staci and a-hole Bill and whoever it is that hides behind them. The Family tree on the blog is adjusted to show the relations to Lucius and Tulla.**


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